Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Easy Crockpot Applesauce

It's APPLE season y'all!!!


There are tons of apple orchards located around our community, but can you believe that I've never been apple picking?? I don't have any memories of going as a kid and every year I say I'm going to go, but have yet to get there. I think it's because it's too darn easy to drive 10 minutes down the road to an orchard that's picked them for us. They have a shed and you just go in and help yourself to the apples that they've picked and sorted.

We drove by our 'apple supplier' a couple of weeks ago, but neither Derek or I had any cash on us, so I finally made a point of stopping this past weekend  For $6.50 I got a mix of Ginger Crisp and Honey Crisp apples. They are both soooo good! I love to eat the Honey Crisp fresh and the Ginger Crisp are perfect for baking. They are sweet, yet tart, which is how I like my apple baked goods.

When we were kids, my grandma would often make us homemade applesauce. She had apple trees in her backyard and never let any go to waste....that meant lots of applesauce for the grandkids!!

She always made hers on the stove, but I decided to try my hand at a crockpot recipe and it turned out fabulously!!

It's sweetened oh so slightly with brown sugar, but still has a nice tart apple flavour. I added a wee bit of lemon juice to keep the apples from going brown, but it didn't really work. The colour of the applesauce is quite dark, but I think the darkercolour comes from the teaspoon of cinnamon that I added.

Easy Crockpot Applesauce
Makes 2 1/2 cups

6 c chopped apples*
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c water

*I did not peel my apples (my grandma never did), but you can peel them if you would like*

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the chopped apples and stir to coat.

Spray your crockpot and place the apples in it. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and water and stir well to combine. I used my mini  hot dip crockpot, but if you have more than 2 in your family, you might want to double or triple this recipe and use a regular-sized crockpot.
Cook on high for 4 hours, stirring occasionally or on low for 6 to 7 hours.

Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

An apple slicer is really nice to have when you need to chop a bunch of apples up!





The aroma of apples & cinnamon is drifting through the entire house by the time
the applesauce starts looking like this! 



I love eating applesauce once it's been chilled. This would be really delicious stirred into oatmeal or served over ice cream as well.


What's your favourite type of apple?

Enjoy the day and I'll see you tomorrow with a new What I Ate Wednesday post,

Andrea
xoxo

4 comments:

  1. mmmm... I love applesauce! My mother would always make apple leather in the dehydrator and we'd have month of eating that as our school snack ;) I'm not sure what my favorite apple type is (I never pay attention too much), I think maybe Gala?

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  2. I love dried apple slices - I'm going to have to pull out the deydrator - thanks for the idea!!

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