Homemade Applesauce

Last Sunday my mother-in-law, Kathy, was kind enough to show me how to make and can homemade applesauce. Andrew and I both love applesauce, especially his mom's homemade applesauce so I was very thankful to learn from her. I took what I learned Sunday and put it to use on Tuesday to make my own homemade applesauce. It was the perfect fall day to do so. It was an overcast day, with a light drizzle coming down. It was a lovely morning to make some sauce.

It's best to use the not so pretty apples for sauce since you peel them anyways

Kathy always uses honeycrisp apples when she makes her sauce because they are sweet enough that you don't have to add any sugar. She peels and cores the apples by hand and slices the white fruit into little apple chips. once the pan is full of apple chips, simmer the fruit on the stove until its soft enough to mush. Kathy likes to throw in a large sprinkle of cinnamon and a small sprinkle of nutmeg and cloves. When I made mine I used a large sprinkle of cinnamon and a small sprinkle of just nutmeg. Cook your fruit until it is mushed to the consistency that you like. We both like ours with a few bigger chunks in it.

Cooked and ready to go

Once your fruit is cooked and ready to go, bring a big kettle of water to a boil. You'll use it to seal the lids of your jars. Fill a sauce pan with hot water and place both parts of your lids in the sauce pan of hot water and put it on the stove on medium heat to get them extra clean. Leave them on the burner until the water starts boiling, then turn off the burner. While you are waiting for your pans of water to heat up, wash your jars, fill the sink with hot water, and let the jars warm up in the water so you don't put hot fruit in cold jars.

Scoop the soft fruit into the jars, but make sure to not fill it to the brim, leave about a half inch at the top. Take a hot rag and wipe around the top of the jar to get any spills that may have happened. Once the top of the jar is clean, place the lid on the jar and screw it on tightly. Use tongs to place the sealed jar into the large, boiling pan of hot water. Make sure it is fully submerged under the boiling water. Place the lid on the pan and let it sit in there for 15 minutes. 

When 15 minutes are up, use the tongs to take the jars out and place them on a wire rack to cool. As the jars are cooling off you'll hear ping noises coming from the jars. If the jar pings it means that it sealed correctly. The jar can still seal without pinging, but you have to check and make sure when you push on the lid it doesn't bounce back. If it bounces back it didn't seal correctly. You can either try it in the water again or you can simple put the sauce in your fridge to eat within 4-5 days.

I am so thankful that Kathy took time out of her day to teach me how make her homemade applesauce and can it. We now have a few jars of applesauce for the winter and I learned something new in the process. I can't wait to do another batch!