DIH: Applesauce

Today's Do It Herself post is not so much a handyman project, but I did use a new tool. I made applesauce, with the help of my two year old son. Honestly, I would never make applesauce just for our general consumption, or to be more healthy, or more thrifty. But I have been craving some homemade apple butter, and it tastes best from homemade applesauce, and my mom gave me a bunch of the apples she had ordered. And loaned me her applesauce making tool - thanks Mom! I couldn't pass up this opportunity.


It turns out applesauce is really easy to make. I got instructions from my mom and a few websites & blogs, but found this site very helpful. Basically I washed my apples and cut them with that cool wedger that cores too - just the basic hand one that you can buy for like $5 anywhere. Then I cooked them in a couple big pots, with about an inch of water in the bottom. So I suppose that's like steaming them. Start the burner on high until the steam is really going, then finish on medium heat. You cook the apples until they are soft all the way through, which took 15-20 minutes for me.

Now comes the fun part, which my kiddo was very interested in. I used my mom's Squeezo, which is a mechanical contraption that you put together from about 20 pieces and when you put your cooked apples in the top and turn the handle, applesauce comes out. It's amazing. Apparently there's a Kitchen Aid attachment that does the same thing. Or you can use a metal sieve, basically anything that will mash the apples and separate the peel & other unsavory parts from the sauce.

It's recommended to use sweet apples, such as Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, or Rome and it's better to use more than one kind to keep the flavor fuller. Or deeper or something - I don't really know these things. But my mom had ordered a box of Granny Smiths to make pie filling & I was happy to use her leftovers for free. All it meant for me was that I needed to add some sugar to make it more palatable. And it really didn't take much - some cinnamon makes it good too. These were added to the batch I was keeping as applesauce, the apple butter needs more fun stuff.


More on making apple butter & some of the most fabulous pumpkin recipes you've ever had coming up soon!