Quick and Easy Applesauce

        My father has started a tradition of bringing me seasonal fruit from Randall's Farm and Greenhouse. He usually brings a big box of ripe fruit that my husband and I dig right into. Last summer, Dad brought peaches and we chopped them up together and stuck them in the freezer in a couple giant Ziploc Bags. I eventually made Peach Jam with hints of ginger and mint. It was a riff one of Carrol Luna's recipes.

    This time my Dad brought apples. Macintosh apples to be exact. I was eating two to three apples a day when my husband and I started talking about pies or other ways to preserve these lovelies. I thought about homemade applesauce. As a kid I ate applesauce ALL the time as a snack or lunch side. I've never made it myself, save for that Sunday School class in fourth grade. I remember the huge pot steaming and then getting to eat warm applesauce out of a Dixie cup. In my memory it seemed like a big production. But I did some research and came up with this quick and hopefully healthy applesauce! No sugar or canning required.

Quick and Easy Applesauce

    What you'll need EDIBLE:

3-4 pounds of apples

1 1/2 cups Water

1 Lemon (Juice and Peels)

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Salt

 What you'll need TOOLS:

Knife

Apple Corer

Vegetable Peeler

Large Pot 

Measuring Cup

Potato Masher

Canning Jars or other Containers 

 1~ Wash, Peel and Core the apples. I didn't completely peel each apple. Isn't the skin where all the nutrients are at??

2~ Peel a Lemon so you get at least 2 long strips of lemon peel.

 3~ Add Apples, lemon peel, water, cinnamon and salt to the pot. Add the Juice from about half a lemon.

4~ Boil the apples for about 20-30 minutes or until soft and broken down. I stirred the pot a few times to gives apples on top a chance to simmer on the bottom of the pot!

Bunny Tip - I'm often rushing a project and I was even rushing this sauce! I started the boiling process before all the apples were cored and thrown in the pot. This created a chunkier sauce and we really like it! The apples boil down to sauce quite quickly and you will really notice the change. You should start to see a lovely pink sauce.

5~ Remove the Lemon peels and Apple skin with tongs if desired.

6~Mash!     (My husband helped out on this step!)

7~ Let cool and store.

We were out of canning jars, so we decided to freeze the sauce in small containers that are individual portion sizes.We did freeze one large container for Hanukkah this year!

Ways to enjoy applesauce~

Hot or Cold

All by Itself

with Ice Cream 

as a Snack

with Pork Chops

in Vegan Brownies

with Latkes

Apple Blueberry Crumble

Tonight I decided to bake, but I also wanted to attempt something new, so I made my first crumble.

It was so easy and delicious, I knew I had to share it. Whenever I bake apple pies, I just sort of guess with everything, and I did that again tonight, but I'll try to share my creation in terms more accessible for the normal baker.

You'll need:

• 2 large apples good for baking. I used Granny Smith apples.
• 2 cups of blueberries
• 1 frozen pie crust
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 T nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter (quartered)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour

Preheat that oven to 350 degrees. Get 'er good and hot!

Peel the apples and cut them into thin slices. The thinner the better.

Put the apple slices in a large bowl and cover them with the nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. Stir them so they are evenly covered.

Add your blueberries (rinsed and drained) to the bowl and stir them in as well. Thinly slice one quarter of the cup of butter and place the slices along the bottom of your pie crust. Pour apple and blueberry mixture into pie crust on top of butter slices.

For the crumble, simply mix the brown sugar, flour and remaining butter together with your hands (yep, it's messy, but fun) until it...well... get crumbly. If it's not getting crumbly, keep adding flour. Then sprinkle it over your fruit in your pie crust until it completely covered.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes or so before eating. I served it with Bird's Custard (weird, British, delicious thing you make in a saucepan out of a powder and some milk), but it would be equally delicious with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Bea