Absolutely the Best Investment Ever for Homemade Applesauce

Our apple trees are really starting to take off.  This year the HoneyCrisp tree was absolutely incredible.  

We made a lot of Apple Pie Filling, but wanted to try something else.  My buddy at work talked a lot about how great homemade Apple Sauce is.  I have only ever tasted store bought Apple Sauce, and I really didn't like it.  I decided to go ahead and try it…who knows…maybe I’ll like homemade Apple Sauce.

I was able to borrow a Victorio Food Strainer from my favorite Shelf Reliance Consultant, Heather.  To be honest, I didn't even know such a tool existed.  I just assumed that my wife and I would be using the peeler/slicer/corer that we used for the apple pie filling.  Then I assumed that we would either use the food processor or the potato masher to get it down to the right consistency.  I had no idea that the Victorio Food Strainer would make the job so easy.

I was so worried that it was going to be such a big deal that I didn't even think to get out the camera to photograph the steps…sorry

1. Wash the apples
2. Halve or quarter your apples and put them in a stock pot.  Most of the HoneyCrisp apples were big, so we had to quarter them, but the smaller ones only needed to be halved.
3. Add a little water to the pot to keep the apples from scorching.  Cook them for ~15-25 minutes until they are soft.
4. Place the apples into the Victorio.  As you turn the handle, the core and skin comes out one shoot and the Amazing Apple Sauce comes out the other.
5. We ran the cores and skins back through Victorio a second time.  It was awesome to see more apple sauce come out, just by re-straining.
6. Add sugar to taste.
7. Fill quart jars and process using the water-bath method.

I said before when I was writing about the pie filling that I couldn't believe that it could be so easy.  I had no idea that making apple sauce could be even easier!  

If you can't tell, I'm really getting into this food storage stuff.  Eat what you store and Store what you eat...It's hard to keep our cold storage full of food storage when it tastes this good!

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Speaking of Pie...

Since my last post talked about pie, I thought it would be fitting that I did a follow-up to my Apple Pie Filling post a few weeks ago.

The apple pie filling that we canned is going so fast!  We can’t get enough of the stuff. 

For Canning, we continue to use the recipes found in the book “Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving”.

Apple Pie Filling (from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving)
12 c. peeled, cored, thinly sliced apples 
2 3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. ClearJel
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1 1/4 c. cold water
2 1/2 c. unsweetened apple juice
1/2 c. lemon juice

1.       Prepare canner, jars and lids (water bath).

2.       In large pot of boiling water, working with 6 cups at a time, blanch apple slices for 1 minute, removed with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a covered bowl.

3.       In large stainless saucepan combine sugar, ClearJel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly and cook until mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture. Before processing, heat, stirring until apples are heated through.

4.       Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot filling. Wipe rim, center lid on jar, screw band down to finger-tip tight.

5.       Process in boiling water for 25 minutes. (35 for me)

Makes 7 Pints

I love the Marie Calendars Apple Crumb Pie.  I think this recipe is pretty close to the original…at least for the crumb topping. J

Crumb Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Apple Crumb Pie

1.       In a medium bowl, mix the crumb topping ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal – set aside.

2.       Pour apple mixture into pie crust. (I cheated and used a frozen pie crust)

3.       Spread the crumb topping evenly over the apples. 

4.       Bake according to your crust recipe

5.       Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

A couple hints –

1 - This is probably a given, but…Make sure you have good apples.  If you don’t like the flavor, texture, etc…you probably won’t like them in a pie.

2 – Make sure you have an apple peeler/corer/slicer - When doing pie filling, you won’t use the slicer, but the peeler/corer is absolutely amazing.  I can’t believe how fast I was able to peel these apples.

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