Applesauce

A couple weeks ago, Bill and I went to a local orchard and picked our own apples.  We felt a little guilty about doing this when Kayleigh was away at college but quickly got over it and picked apples like our lives depended on it.  We go through a lot of apples in the fall.  We make apple crisp, apple pie, apple fritters, apple cake, etc.  But we might have got a little too excited about picking apples.  We ended up with almost 40 pounds!  We can only eat so many desserts and raw apples so I had to come up with another use.  I decided to try to make applesauce.  I knew the basic idea was just to cook the apples until they fall apart so I decided to take the main flavors from an apple pie and turn it into applesauce.  I knew I succeeded when my mom called me and said that it tastes just like pie!

Applesauce

4 pounds apples, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 lemon

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  For the lemon, juice it into the pot then throw in the lemon peels.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Stir every now and then to make sure the apples are breaking down.  Remove the lemon and cinnamon stick.  Mash the apples using a potato masher.  Store in the fridge or freeze.

I know there are certain apples that are best for eating vs baking vs making applesauce but we really just like honey crisp so that is what we used.

Here we are at Garwood Orchards in LaPorte Indiana picking way too many apples.  Thank goodness it was cold or who knows how many we would have came home with!