Making Homemade Applesauce
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009What better way to welcome fall than to take a few pounds of it’s finest creation, chop it up into tiny bits, throw it in a vat of boiling goo and then smash the beejezus out of it?
Oh yeah, you heard me. Applesauce baby!
Our tent camping season is pretty much over in these parts, which means it’s time to head to the kitchen and start testing out some recipes for next season. I’ve got a nice size cast iron dutch oven I’ll be breaking out next year, so I’m looking for some good recipes that can be made in that. I’m also looking for some recipes that take time.
Why, you might ask?
Making applesauce is a great way to use up an afternoon at the camp site.
One of the things I love best about camping is the amount of time I have to cook. I know, I know, that sounds crazy. Camping is about being one with nature and taking in the beauty of your surroundings and blah blah blah blah.
Yeah, you heard me. I love all that stuff, don’t get me wrong. But what I REALLY love about camping is how much time I have to cook. When we camp, we have no timeline. We relax, we chill out and we go do things only when we feel like it. That means I have as much time as I want to cook. An hour on breakfast? No problem! Two hours on dinner? Sure!
While I haven’t taken my kids camping with me yet, I expect they’ll make at least a few treks with me next year. Finding ways to both keep them occupied and to let them help with things around camp has been on my list. When the Hero of Canton suggested we make applesauce, I thought it was a grand plan.
With two adults and two preschoolers, it took about an hour and a half to make. That’s exactly what I was looking for. This recipe would be a great way to keep some pre-teens and teens busy for a bit on a camping trip and makes up a large (and delicious) batch of warm cinnamon applesauce you can enjoy for dessert one night (and have again for breakfast the next morning.)
So here’s what you do…
First you gather up three to four pounds of good cooking apples. You might use granny smith, golden delicious, cortland, gala or fuji. It works best if you use a mix as some types of apples will cook down faster than others and the slower to cook down types end up staying behind to act as those yummy chunkies. You’ll also want to snag yourself a lemon. (More on that later.)
I came home with a mix of Granny Smith (I like their bite) and Honeycrisp.
Mmmm.....apples
First things first…peel your apples.
A veggie peeler makes quick work of the skin.
Next you need to core them.
If you've got multiple people, let one peel and one core.
Next you’ll need to cut them into small chunks, about 1″.
Chunk em up, baby!
Put them in a bowl and set them aside.
Just keep an eye on the kidlets, they like to snack!
Next you need your lemon. You’re going to be using the peel, so make sure you wash it. Take your veggie peeler and take off three or four nice thick pieces of rind.
That lemon has appeal...sorry, I couldn't resist.
You’re going to need some of the juice as well, so roll it around a bit to soften it up, then cut it in half.
Don't forget to roll the lemons...really, it makes a big difference.
Next you need to juice your lemon. You’ll need about 3 tablespoons of juice, a single lemon should cover it.
This is where the kids come in handy, my kids LOVED juicing the lemon.
Pour the lemon juice into your dutch oven. (In this case, it was into my stock pot.)
Even the littlest kid can help by pouring ingredients in.
Next you’ll need 1/4 cup of packed DARK brown sugar. If you’re camping, make sure you measure this out ahead of time and take it in a zip lock bag.
I said DARK brown sugar, not the light variety.
Top that off with another 1/4 cup of white sugar. This will give you half a cup total.
Mix your sugars together and store them in a zip lock bag for your trip.
Add your pieces of lemon peel and your sugars to your dutch oven or stock pot.
Mmm...yummy sweetness!
Measure out one cup of water and add it to the pot.
Once again, those kids come in handy!
Now it’s finally time to add the apples to the mix!
Emmitt's favorite job is dumping stuff into pots.
Add in cinnamon to taste. I threw in about a teaspoon or so, but it’s easy enough to add more once it’s made, so go easy. Then give it all a good stir to mix it together.
Giving it all a good stir does a nice job of making sure all the apples have a coating of cinnamon and sugar.
Here’s where things start to vary… if you’re making this at home, turn your burner up to high and keep an eye on things until it starts to boil. If you’re at camp and you aren’t using a camp stove, put your dutch oven over a hot fire until you see it start to boil.
Keep an eye on it until it comes to a boil, shouldn't take long.
Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low or move your dutch oven away from the hot part of the fire and let it simmer over low heat for another 20-30 minutes. (If you’re using a dutch oven and you can’t get it far enough from the fire, just keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t cook down too fast.)
Then comes the fun part. Pull out your potato masher and let someone start smashing away.
The Hero of Canton decided he’d use his manly-man skills to sauce the heck out of our batch.
Mash those apples!
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to enjoy! We ate ours warm over vanilla ice cream that night, then put the rest in the fridge and have been eating it with breakfast.
Apple cinnamony goodness!
This recipe makes a pretty good amount, so it’s perfect if you’re camping with a large group or have a cooler you can put the leftovers in.
Let me know how it goes if you try it!
tagged under: applesauce recipe cooking food