Making Applesauce

The house smells wonderful - just like Fall!

We've several large batches of applesauce and I had to quickly get it in to the freezer before it all disappeared. I have 8 cups in the freezer, 4 in the fridge and 4 already gone. We used to buy apples by the bushel from the orchard for next to nothing. They were seconds so they weren't too pretty but for something like applesauce, they were perfect. I haven't found an orchard here so I buy they apples at the market when they are on sale.

I don't peel my apples when making applesauce. Instead I push them through my food mill after cooking and strain the peel that way. I also make my applesauce in the crockpot so I can leave it unattended. My crockpot holds about 6 lbs of apples (I use tart apples) so I core them, slice them, and drop them in with about 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon and turn it on low. Cook it all long enough to get nice and soft then put it through the medium screen on a food mill. (If you don't have a food mill, just peel the apples before cooking)

The boys love cranking the apples through this apple peeler/corer thing. The apples come out spiral sliced but still together - an apple slinky!

So very good!