Applesauce making, 2024.

I make applesauce almost every year. This year I bought a bushel of apples, made it all into sauce and shared it with my two daughters who have moved into their own homes. It’s the perfect amount for us and will most likely last till next September. Then we will head to our favorite apple orchard, and go through the process once again.

I use my kitchen aid mixer and the fruit/vegetable strainer attachment to make the applesauce, it’s a really great, easy way to make apples into sauce. I got the mixer and the attachment set as wedding gift over 27 years ago and it’s still going strong.

Our favorite apples for sauce is Courtland variety; we love the soft pink color it has. The more ripe the apples the more pink the sauce will be. We buy this variety in September – if we wait till October they are all gone!

Using the fruit/veggie strainer attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer means you don’t have to do much to prep your apples. I rinse them off, cut them in quarters, cut off the stem and blossom end and then cut each quarter in half. No need to remove the seeds or core – the mixer attachment will take care of that for you!

A few years ago I started using my instant pot to cook my apples. I fill it to the max mark on the pot insert, and set the time to pressure cook for 1 minute. Honestly, the apples don’t even need to cook for 2 minute after coming to pressure, so I usually cancel it as soon as it beeps that it’s pressurized and starts counting down that one minute. Quick release, and apples are falling apart soft and ready to go through the sauce maker.

The apples, cores, peels and juice all get put through the sauce maker – I run my mixer on low to medium speed. The wood stomper pushes the pulpy apples into the attachment that squeezes out all the applesauce and sends the peel and cores out the end. This year I learned a tip from my daughter to put the discard back through a second time to get a bit more of the good stuff out!

A bushel of apples took me several hours to make into sauce, but a lot of the time is spent waiting on the apples to cook. The instant pot is my favorite way to cook them. You can put them in a large pan on the stove but then you have to stand there and stir. You can use your microwave if you have one, but it takes awhile and it’s a lot of in and out and stirring and reheating till they are soft enough. I prefer to pop them in the instant pot and then I can cut up more apples for the next batch. Once all the apples are cut, there is even time to grab a few minutes with your book while you wait :)

Back before the days of the kitchen aid mixer attachment, my mom used a different method to make applesauce that involved her blender. So I grew up used to applesauce that was very smooth, unlike most applesauce you buy in the store. I remember when we got the mixer attachment, and the first time my mom made applesauce and served without blending it. None of us liked it! So she continued to blend it, and we always had the smoothest applesauce around. To this day I still put mine through the blender to make it smoother. It’s not a necessary step in the applesauce making process by any means but we like it better this way so I take the time for this extra step.

This is also when I sweeten it. I added a few shakes of mineral salt, about 4 tablespoons of sweetener. We use a natural sweetener blend that is not sugar but you can use sugar or whatever sweetener you prefer. Adding it to the blender as I blend each batch of sauce ensures that it gets mixed through well. If you are skipping the blend, you can stir the sugar/sweetener and salt through the whole batch – if you bowl is as full as mine I’d recommend splitting it between two bowls so you can stir well.

applesauce in canning jars for the freezer

I’ve been using mason jars for my applesauce and putting them in the freezer. I used plastic freezer containers for years but I’m not a fan of the way they wear and clean up. You do have to be careful with glass but I’ve had the plastic containers break as well so I prefer to take more care and use glass. Leave enough room in the top for expansion so the glass doesn’t break as the sauce freezes.