I spent some time last night using up the rest of the apples given to us from a neighbor's tree, supplemented by the super low priced local apples that I got at the store. With these apples I decided to make applesauce, even though I generally don't like it and only Emma will sometimes eat it.
[Emma, by the way, is not a chicken and I have no intentions of eating her.]
I'm sorry to say that I have never eaten homemade applesauce and Oh. My. God. is it a totally different animal from the store-bought kind. Even the organic store-brand applesauce isn't very good. They all have some weird metallicy flavor to them I can't stand.
The homemade applesauce, on the other hand, is in an entirely different food group. I did leave it a tad chunky so it's more reminiscent of apple pie rather than pulverized, rotting downed apples. Did I mention that I don't like store-bought applesauce?
Anyway, if you have a hankering for making it yourself, I recommend this recipe from Julia Child that was recently featured in our local paper, along with their recommendations for the types of apples that go well in applesauce.
12 comments:
I believe my children could live on homemade applesauce. You are right, it is a food group unto itself. Other than oatmeal, homemade applesauce is the first food I give my babies and they love it! :)
Grind it up a bit more, throw it atop parchment paper on a cookie sheet, spread thin and bake down in a low oven and you have apple leather.
Just as good.
I grew up with home made applesauce- the store kind is pretty sad in comparison.
By the way (regarding the link), if anyone is in the neighborhood, Merrits apple cider and donuts are really yummy too.
yummm - I love apple sauce - the chunkier the better, but now I have to get that comment about rotted downed out of my head!
I love homemade apple anything. Unfortunatly because of our late freeze, we have none {apples that is} in this area. I have a spicy apple sauce recipe posted somewhere, maybe it is time to bring it back up.
If you're interested in a recipe with less sugar, I offer up my tried-and-true method, here.
I use apple sauce in baking all the time in place of eggs or sugar. None of us will eat apple sauce straight but love how it makes baked goods moist.
Applesauce-making is a tradition in my family. We make 3 or 4 bushels worth to freeze. My mother insists on using Yellow Transparent apples, which are getting harder and harder to find. They are so good though!
I wrote down some of the varieties in the article you linked in case we need to substitute. Thanks for the link!
I made applesauce for the first time this week too. It's delicious! I agree that it is completely superior to store bought. I've got a bunch of extra in my freezer now.
I also made some spiced apple-pear butter for the first time. Yum! I love the fall.
This is how my grandmother makes hers (and thus how I make mine, since in my family, we seem to have the recipes genetically encoded). We actually lave it even chunkier: just cut into apple wedges and then cut the wedges in half. The sugar will still leach out enough juice that you won't need to add liquid.
If you need a change of pace, this works equally well with pears (mmm) and very well if you add a liberal dose of whole cranberries and cook them until they pop -- apple (or pear) cranberry sauce is really good and it jells itself a bit as cranberries are very high in pectin.
you don't need to add sugar at all to homemade applesauce IMO. I own a foley mill. I just quarter washed apples, add a small amount of water, cook until very soft and then run it all through the foley mill. That gives it that great colour too and it is delicious. I have used many different kinds of local apples, whatever is available. The only problem is that it takes a lot of apples and my fourth son and i eat it very quickly. We don't care much either for store bought applesauce except for cooking.
just made this (and canned it, too)!!! absolutely delicious :)
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