Easy Homemade Applesauce – Regular And Cinnamon Recipe

Did you know that it is super easy to make homemade applesauce right in your own kitchen? Not only is it a great way to cut out extra sugar and other ingredients that you often find in store-bought brands, but you can control the flavor profile as well as the consistency.

Do you prefer your applesauce with a bit of a sour kick? Then add varieties like Granny Smiths to the mix. If you prefer a sweeter applesauce, then grab apple varieties that lend themselves to being nice and sweet (more on apple varieties below).

Not only can you control the flavor of the applesauce, but also how thick or smooth the final product is. I like to use an immersion blender, but you can easily use a regular blender or even a potato masher to create the perfect consistency for you and your family.

When it comes to homemade recipes, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Simply add the peeled and cored apples into a pot and let it cook down, blend it, add the rest of the ingredients, boil, and it’s done! You can either can it, freeze it, or enjoy it right away!

To top it all off, I’m going to include how you can turn the sugar-free regular applesauce recipe into cinnamon applesauce (my personal favorite)! It’s likely that you won’t want to go back to store-bought applesauce after making it homemade!

How To Make Easy Homemade Applesauce

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe, including exact measurements and amounts. You can also print out the instructions. I go into a bit more detail about the recipe here first, just in case you need it.

Ingredients For Easy Homemade Applesauce

To make regular applesauce, you only need three simple ingredients: apples, lemon juice, and water. If you want to turn it into cinnamon applesauce, then you just need two more pantry stables: brown sugar and cinnamon.

Apples

All apples have different flavor profiles. Some are sweet and floral while others might be tart and crisp. The best applesauce as well as other apple recipes like apple crisp are all way better when you combine a few different apple varieties together. However, you can really use whatever types you have on hand or are on sale at the store or farmer’s market for that day.

Some of the more popular sweeter apple varieties that work well for this easy homemade applesauce recipe include Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Braeburn, and Cosmic Crisp. (Cosmic Crisp is my all-time favorite apple variety! If only we could grow them locally.) Some semi-sweet apple varieties include Honeycrisp and Jonagolds. Popular tart apple varieties include Granny Smith, McIntosh, Pink Lady, Jonathan, and Courtland.

However, don’t feel like you HAVE to use one of those varieties. All apples can make great applesauce when they are cooked down. These are just the ones I personally prefer and are most common for applesauce.

Both my parents and I have different apple tree varieties growing on our properties that we use for our applesauce. Since their trees are older and produce more fruit, we typically use theirs for the bulk of our apple recipes. The main varieties we use are Golden Delicious, Jonathans, Fuji, and Honeycrisp.

Other Ingredients

While the apples are definitely the star of the show, there are a couple of other ingredients that you need for this recipe.

Lemon Juice – You need to have a bit of acid just to help balance out the sweetness of the apples. In addition, lemon juice helps to preserve the color of the apples and prevents them from browning. And, if you plan on canning your applesauce, it is required for safe canning.

Water – While the apples will produce quite a bit of juice as they cook down, you still need a bit of water to prevent them from burning as they cook.

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon – These are only needed to make cinnamon applesauce. You can use light or dark brown sugar for this recipe, but I typically use light. The cinnamon helps to add a nice bit of warmth to the applesauce.

Directions For Easy Homemade Applesauce

The first step is to wash and clean your apples. Then they need to be peeled and cored. While this sounds like a very daunting chore, it really isn’t that bad if you use a Johnny Apple Peeler. This bad boy will not only peel your apples for you, but it also cores them and slices them all at the same time. If you plan on processing a bunch of apples, it is a much-needed purchase in my opinion. (Product Link: Johnny Apple Peeler)

With using the Johnny Apple Peeler, you might end up with a bit of the skin left on the apples at the top and bottom (see picture below). I typically just remove these pieces and give them and the apple cores to my chickens. (They enjoy me making homemade applesauce as much as I do!) The long peels that are leftover go into my compost bin.

Add all of your apples to a large stock pot. I have one that holds 12 quarts, which is perfect for making this recipe. If you have a smaller stock pot, you can always cut the recipe in half or make it in two separate pots. Just split the rest of the ingredients accordingly.

After adding the apples, you need to add some water. I typically do between one to two cups, depending on how many apples I end up with. Most of the time, 1.5 cups seems to be the sweet spot. You need enough liquid to cover the bottom of the stock pot and prevent the apple slices from burning.

Cook Down The Apples

Set the stove to medium-low heat and cover the stockpot with a lid. The amount of time it takes for the apples to cook down will vary on the apple varieties used and how large of a batch you are doing. Harder apples will take a bit longer to cook down. Soft apples like Golden Delicious will cook down faster. My batches typically take between 45 minutes to an hour.

Stir the apples every 5 to 10 minutes while they are cooking to give all the slices a chance to heat up evenly. You want the apples to be nice and tender so they can break apart easily. To test for doneness, remove an apple slice and place it on a plate. If you can easily smash it with a fork, then the batch is ready for blending.

Blending & Storing – Easy Homemade Applesauce

As I stated earlier, I like to use an immersion blender to blend the applesauce since our family prefers a nice and smooth sauce. This is the inexpensive one I have that does the job nicely – Product Link: Proctor-Silex Electric Immersion Hand Blender.

You can also use a stand mixer if you have one of those instead. Just blend the apples in batches. Be careful since the apples are hot and can sometimes splash onto you when blending (speaking from personal experience!).

If you don’t want your applesauce completely smooth, then stop blending when there are still a few chunks left. Or, partially blend half of the batch and the remaining apples until smooth. Then combine both batches together.

Once the apples are blended to your preference, it’s time to add the lemon juice. If you are making cinnamon applesauce, also add the brown sugar and cinnamon at this time. Bring the mixture to a boil.

If you are going to be canning, keep the applesauce boiling while you prepare the jars (stir often to prevent burning). Otherwise, allow the applesauce to cool after boiling. Store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the cooled-down applesauce as well in freezer-safe containers or ziplock bags.

Canning Instructions

If you are going to can this easy homemade applesauce, prepare your water bath canner and jars like normal. You can use either pint or quart jars. We typically use quart jars since we go through applesauce pretty quickly.

Carefully pour the hot applesauce into warm jars, leaving half an inch of airspace. Remove any air bubbles. Clean the rim of the jars and add the lids and bands. Add the jars to the canner and bring it to a rolling boil. Process both pint or quart jars for 20 minutes.

When the 20 minutes are up, turn off the heat and allow the jars to sit in the canner for five minutes. Remove the jars and place them on a towel undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. After this time, remove the bands and check the jars for a tight seal. Store any unsealed jars in the fridge and consume them within a week. Enjoy!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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