Growing up, I always knew it was fall when my mom made homemade applesauce! She would make it out of McIntosh apples and serve it warm but the scent filled our whole house with that apple cinnamon flavor! It was perfect when the weather started to turn a little brisk and mom would often serve it after making warm chilly for dinner.
This past weekend, Seth and I visited my grandma and her husband in New York with my dad and his fiancé. We went to a local apple orchard in Medina, NY called LynOaken Farms and picked apples! There were at least 10 different kinds of apples to choose from and we picked apples from about every kind of tree we could (some trees weren't ready yet, others were already done producing). We got a great deal on McIntosh apples that had already been picked; we got half a peck for $5. I figured I would give half of them to my mom and Seth and I would use the other half.
(We ended up with A LOT of apples...)
Seth and I decided to make some homemade apple sauce with part of our apples last night - here's how we did it!
First, we started by skinning our apples and cutting them in equal sized chunks, removing the core and seeds.
When we had enough apples to fill our pot, we added the other ingredients: vanilla, sugar, lemon juice, water, cinnamon, and salt.
Once everything was in the pot, we heated it on high and allowed everything to come to a boil.
When the "sauce" was boiling, we turned the heat down and covered the mixture for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now depending on how you like your applesauce will determine how long you let your sauce cook. If you like it chunkier than you'll cook it less but if you like it more smooth, you'll cook it for 20-30 minutes like we did.
And the end result is some good, warm, homemade cinnamon applesauce.
Since this is technically like the inside of an apple pie you could choose to serve it warm with vanilla ice cream, you can eat it plain and warm like I do and like my mom prefers, or you can refrigerate it and eat it cold. Whatever you choose, it can't be wrong!
Find the full recipe HERE. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and as much as my mom does. If you try the recipe, let me know how it goes in the comments!