Homemade Applesauce

Some traditions are just too special to let go and get crossed off your list when you are busy. For me that would be making homemade applesauce. It began with my grandmother, continued with my mom and on down to me.

In my family it used to start with the yearly trek to an apple orchard to buy many more apples than we could eat. I had a love/hate relationship with those orchards. I remember trying to convince my son that all those apples on the ground were yucky. And to assure my daughter that there were plenty of delicious apples that weren't at the very tip top of the trees. Yes, it was a fun outing but I always worried about the bees swarming around and knew we would come home with bushels full and then the applesauce extravaganza would begin.

Back then I made enough applesauce for our family to eat throughout the year. I never had to buy store-bought applesauce, it was just a run down to the freezer and a never ending supply was at your fingertips.

Things have changed, as they do when your kids move out. I no longer get my apples at an orchard. Grocery stores have come a long way with their quality of produce and it's soooooo much easier. Do I miss those orchards with the swarming bees and smell of rotting fruit? More than you know.

It starts with a mixed variety of apples. I have used many types but I always include Macouns. They have dark red skins and are juicy sweet. I have also used Empires, Romes and Honeycrisps. For this homemade applesauce, I only used about 18 huge Macoun and Honeycrisp apples this year. I have two big cooking pots and that is exactly what fit for one batch.

Now on to the fun part.

I know....it looks like a torture device. But trust me, this is the easiest way to process a lot of apples. This food strainer from Amazon is worth the money if you want to make homemade applesauce or tomato sauce.

Once it is set up, it is like an assembly line and is pretty easy. My kids used to help me and they thought it was a fun project. I put two cooked apples at a time in the funnel and crank away. The applesauce comes down the strainer and the skin and seeds goes down the other.

This is the applesauce straight out of the strainer. Nothing has been added. The color depends on the type of apples. The macouns I used happened to be dark red so it produced a nice dark pink applesauce.

When added to the honey crisps, their flesh was more yellow so the combination was a lighter pink. The best part for the kids was being my taste testers. Because the apples were different every year, it wasn't an exact measurement of sugar and spice. You just have to taste it...a lot.

This is the final result after sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon has been added. Some years the apples are not as dark red and I have added just a drop or two of red food coloring; not necessary, just pretty.

Another yearly tradition completed! And even though my freezer is not filled with tons of plastic containers of applesauce, there is just enough for Thanksgiving and Christmas and that is enough.