There’s nothing I love more than apple season. I’ll be saying this again in the spring about peaches, haha but seriously, I love apples. I started years ago making this homemade applesauce and now it’s something I have to do every October.

You can make it in small batches or stockpile for a year as I do. I jar mine up and can them so we can enjoy all the goodness throughout the year. When I’m canning, I will make homemade applesauce, apple butter, and sliced apples. It is labor-intensive; however, the efforts are totally worth it. Once you make the homemade stuff, you won’t go back to buying it from the store.

Simple Ingredients

So what’s in applesauce? It’s literally two ingredients unless you want to add cinnamon.

Farm picked apples
Raw apple cider

That’s all you need to make this yummy and nutritious dish for your family.

Types Of Apple To Use

I personally love using Stayman Winesap apples to make my applesauce. Some nice ladies told me about them years ago and it’s just my go-to apple now. It’s more of an antique heritage apple and a lot of farms aren’t growing them anymore. I always call ahead prior to going to a farm to make sure they have them. This year, I did mix Empire’s with my Staymans, and boy, are they delicious. You want to select a softer apple good or known for cooking. Apple varieties that are best for making homemade applesauce are Jonathan, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Stayman, Empire and I’m sure there are more. You can always ask the farmer or the market what they recommend.

Freezing or Canning Applesauce

You can definitley freeze applesauce. Make sure you are using a jar big enough or not too big enough for your family. Once you unthaw it, I’d only keep it in the refridgerator for one week. If you are going to freeze your homemade applesauce, you will need to leave about an inch open at the top of the jar. This will alleviate your glass jar from cracking in the freezer.
I personally enjoy canning my applesauce. All you need is a big stock pot or a water bath canner. I jar up my homemade applesauce in pint and quart size jars and put them in my pantry. It’s so easy to open a jar up and serve it with supper. I’ll touch base on canning below.

How To Make Homemade Applesauce

If you have a crockpot, then it’s just that easy. The bulk of the time is spent peeling the apples. You can definitely use one of the apple corer and peeler attachments. That will make it go by fast. You can also do it “old school” and get out your paring knife and just start peeling away. If you are making small batches, then this won’t take long.

Since I stockpile for a year, I slice my apples with my apple corer and then toss them in a bowl of lemon juice. This will avoid them turning brown.

I then toss them in my crockpot (with the peel on) and add about one cup of raw apple cider. This is apple cider you can buy at markets or farms and does not contain any sugar or preservatives.

Set your crockpot to the low setting and cook for – hours. Once they are soft and kinda mushy, they are done. Another sign they are cooked is the peels will just fall off. I turn off the crockpot and let it cool for about 10 minutes. I then put on a plastic glove and start pulling out all the skins. This is by far the easiest way for me to do a year’s worth.

I do have a food mill that I may run a batch through, but that is a workout on your arm haha. It’s nice to have and I do use mine.

You can then jar it up and stick it in the fridge or start your canning process. I like mine with pieces of apples in it but I also puree some for my kids.

Homemade Applesauce

My homemade applesauce is easy to make yet very nutritios . It literall is made with two ingredients. Farm picked apples and raw apple cider. That's it friends.

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Servings 4 Cups

Equipment

Crockpot
Food MIll
Apple Corer

Ingredients

12 Medium Apples
1 cup Raw Apple Cider
1 tsp Cinnimman (optional)

Instructions

Core and wedge your apples. Toss them in a bowl of lemon juice water, to avoid browning.
Add the apples to your crockpot and then pour in the cider.
Set your crockpot to low setting and cook for 2-3 hours.
Once they are soft and mushy, turn the crockpot off and let cool for approx. 10 minutes.
If you've left the peels on, remove them.
At this point, you can fill your jars with the applesauce and can it or place it in the fridge.
If you want it a smoother texter, you'll need to puree it.

Notes

Applesauce will keep fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week. It can be frozen for up to 6 months. See my notes above on freezing. If you’re canning, make sure you follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidelines. National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Can (uga.edu)