Description
Want to make super easy sugar free applesauce without peeling the apples? I’m going to show you how! No sugar, no peeling apples for days, no setting up the Victorio strainer, and virtually no waste. Only applesauce with phenomenal flavor. THM E
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Ingredients
1/2 bushel apples of your choice (I prefer a firm apple with a fine grain that is sweet and tart at the same time – Honeycrisp and Fuji are my favorites. Seconds are fine. Granny Smith is great for a tart applesauce.)
Instructions
Wash your desired quantity of apples.
Cut any bad spots off the apples – throw these scraps in the woods for the animals or compost them.
Core the apples. The easiest, quickest way to do this is by cutting along the core four times as shown below. (See the blog post above for more pictures.) I save the cores to make apple cider vinegar! (See blog post for details.)
Put the cored apples in a large kettle (I used an 8 quart) with a few inches of water. You may need to do multiple batches depending on how many apples you want to sauce. (I cooked mine in two batches.) It’s helpful not to fill the kettle all the way up so you have room for stirring without getting apples all over your stovetop. Cover the kettle and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to keep the liquid at a low boil. Cook the apples until they’re really soft and falling apart, stirring occasionally.
When the apples are soft, drain the excess liquid using a colander. (Reserve the liquid to make mulled cider later. Details in blog post.) Stir the apples in the colander a bit with a spoon to release any ready liquid. There will still be some liquid in the apples – that’s fine. Let the apples cool a bit before blending. Go feed the baby if you have one.
Spoon the apples into your desired high powered blender of choice – I love my Vitamix. Don’t overfill. Leave the vent on top open to prevent pressure from building up but cover the opening with a kitchen towel to avoid getting splashed in the face with hot apples. Be very careful and use common sense.
Process the apples to the desired texture. (You can add some of the liquid back in if needed; I did not.) I prefer to quit blending before the mixture is completely babyfood smooth, but that does mean that a few little flecks of apple peeling remain.
Pour the applesauce into freezer containers. Leave a bit of headspace for expansion. Cool the applesauce to room temperature on the counter before covering with lids and freezing.
A half bushel of apples yielded 11 ½ 1.5-pint containers. (That would be a little over 17 pints, or a little over 8 ½ quarts.)
Notes
I’m sure there are plenty of applesauce canning tutorials online, so just follow this process up to the “pour into containers” point and follow a canning tutorial from there if that’s your preference. I find that frozen applesauce tastes fresher than canned applesauce.
Applesauce made with the peelings will be darker in color than regular applesauce.
If I serve applesauce for dinner and want it to be a little sweeter I just top my own with some cinnamon and THM Super Sweet Blend or a drizzle of honey (not the best option if you want to lose weight). I’m sure you could also add your favorite low glycemic sweetener to the applesauce to taste – either blend or whisk it in before pouring the applesauce into your desired storage containers. You could add some cinnamon too if you like; this will darken the color.
Check out the blog post above for details on how to make apple cider vinegar with the apple cores. There are also instructions for how to enjoy the leftover cooking juice strained off of the apples!
I’m calling this recipe sugar free because it is free of added refined sugar, but the apples do contain plenty of natural sugars.
Allergy info: gluten free, egg free, dairy free, nut free
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Tutorial
- Method: Blender
- Cuisine: THM E, low fat, sugar free
