Homemade Applesauce

I never have really been an applesauce girl so to speak.  However, I’m definitely a “warm apple pie filling poured over a 100 calorie cup of vanilla ice cream” kind of girl.  And I decided to make homemade apple sauce tonight, which turned out really delicious.  But before I put it in the fridge to cool for tomorrow night’s dinner, i snuck a half cup while it was still warm and it was glorious!

Again, I’ll give you both the crock pot and the instant pot versions below.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs of gala apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup of water
• 2 tsp lemon juice (if you’re using the crock pot. Not needed for instant pot)

Directions: 

For Crock Pot

1. Mix all ingredients together in crock pot, and heat on high 3 hrs, or low 6 hrs.
2. Once time is up, open lid and stir apples until they have broken up and sort of melded together.  Sauce will be chunky.
3. Use an immersion blender to break up chunks until sauce reaches desired consistency.  You can dump the sauce into a food processor or blender as well, but listen. LISTEN to me.  Do not fill more than 1/2 way at a time with hot apples, or it will blow boiling hot apples all over you when you push the button.  Trust me.  This is why i use the immersion blender.
4. You can cook the apples down a little longer if you find there’s more juice than you want.

Serve hot or cold in 1/2 cup serving sizes.

For Instant Pot:

1. Mix all ingredients (except lemon juice) together in instant pot.
2. Use the manual setting to cook for 5 minutes at high pressure.
3. Once cooking is complete, use the pressure dial to release the steam (QR).
4. Once steam is released, open lid and stir apples until they have broken up and sort of melded together.  Sauce will be chunky.
5. Use an immersion blender to break up chunks until sauce reaches desired consistency.  You can dump the sauce into a food processor or blender as well, but listen. LISTEN to me.  Do not fill more than 1/2 way at a time with hot apples, or it will blow boiling hot apples all over you when you push the button.  Trust me.  This is why i use the immersion blender.
6. You can cook the apples down a little longer on the saute or keep warm setting if you find there’s more juice than you want.  If you plan to serve cold, sauce will thicken in some in the fridge.

Serve hot or cold in 1/2 cup serving sizes.

Makes 8 (1/2 cup) servings= 150 Calories per serving

Editors Note: This sauce is sweet, and I love it that way. If you wanted to make this unsweetened by omitting the brown sugar, your 8 servings would come out to 124 calories each.

Editors Note: I actually left the peels on half of my apples, but the peels stayed in tact when i blended them all together, which i don’t mind at all… but you know… kids.  So  next time I’ll probably peel them all.  If you’re using the blender or food processor, i wouldn’t even bother peeling them.

Tags: cinnamon applesauce, crockpot applesauce, diet applesauce, gala applesauce, homemade applesauce, instant pot applesauce, low calorie applesauce, slow cooker applesauce