Recipe: Apple Sauce

My husband and I went apple picking last weekend. It brought back all sorts of childhood memories of going to the orchard in the fall, but that was in the Midwest US. I didn't think we had apple orchards here in the middle of the Arizona desert, but it turns out I was wrong. A little ways north of the town of Wickenburg is Date Creek Ranch, where you can go and pick your own fruit. http://www.datecreekranch.com/

So, I've been processing apples this week. I cut and peeled and sliced, and made a batch of dried apple chips on the food dehydrator. And then, one of my son's favorites is apple sauce. I'd never made it from scratch before, but I was willing to give it a try. The first batch turned out so well that when I found apples on sale at the grocery store, I bought more so I could do it again. Here's what I did:

The apples from the orchard were small enough that I had to peel and core them by hand, but store bought apples are big enough to use my cool apple slicer/corer/peeler gadget. (Similar to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Industries-5920-Apple-Peeler-Slicer/dp/B001A6E91E , but a different model.)



Here's the apples, all cored and spiral sliced. I removed the rest of the peel bits, and cut each apple in half.







I put the slices in a sauce pan, and added a half inch or so of water in the bottom of the pan. Then I covered it, and simmered the apples for 15 minutes or so, until they became mushy.






I added 1 tsp of cinnamon.










And then added 1/4 C sugar. Cinnamon and sugar is to taste, but that is a good starting point.








Then I took a potato masher, and started squishing away. You could use a food processor, but this gadget was handy. And I like the slightly chunky texture that it gives.






After several minutes of squishing and splashing, I had applesauce! Very very tasty stuff. It is in the refrigerator now, chilling for tomorrow's eating.







So, why didn't I realize that apple sauce was this easy before???