Crock Pot Applesauce
This is a recipe you’re going to want to have on hand come Thanksgiving. Crock Pot Applesauce is the best kind of applesauce!
In the interest of laziness, minimal work, and taking it easy, I bring you this easy Crock Pot Applesauce recipe. Because if an appliance can do it for you, why do it yourself? AmIright?
I won’t lie and say this recipe makes itself. You have to do SOME work to get it started….liiiiiike peel a pile of apples.
But don’t worry, there’s hope! You can take the lazy way out on this step like me and just “roughly peel” your apples. By “roughly” I mean speed around the apple with a peeler, almost slice your knuckle off (more than once) and leave whatever peel doesn’t make the first cuts behind. I don’t mind a bit of peel in my sauce, so it works for me.
Once your apples are peeled to your preference, you throw them in your slow cooker, cover them in a bit of brown sugar and lemon juice, stuff some cinnamon sticks in, set it to high, and go about your day.
That’s it. In about 6 hours the apples will be soft and mashable. From there you can use an immersion blender to get ultra smooth sauce, or just mash them up a bit with a pastry blender or berry masher for a chunkier sauce.
I am totally in the chunky camp! How about you? (Also, Chunky Camp sounds like the intervention camp that happens before you go to Fat Camp. Let’s not go there, shall we?)
I’m also in the Eat It Warm Camp. I LOVE warm applesauce. It feels fancier somehow–almost like dessert. Am I the only weirdo who feels that way? (don’t answer that.)
Ahem.
Here’s the deal. With minimal effort on your part, you’re going to be rewarded with some dreamy applesauce. Way better than store bought. It’s just so much more…apple-y. (I know, I know…even my adjectives are lazy today!) Cinnamon spiced with a hint of lemon, this stuff will knock your socks off.
This is a recipe you’re going to want to have on hand come Thanksgiving. When your oven is stacked, the fridge is full, and even your microwave is pulling double duty, you’ll be glad you can depend on another appliance to prepare the applesauce.
Or better yet, freeze this ahead of time, then just allow it to thaw in your fridge overnight. SO EASY.
Crock Pot Applesauce
Grab your slow cooker, and a whole mess of apples. It's time to make some KILLER applesauce that you can freeze and enjoy all year long!
Ingredients
- 16 apples, peeled and sliced (Use a variety--Jonathans, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Suncrisp, and Galas all work well)
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (or more to taste)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Instructions
- Stack the apples in your crockpot. Shove cinnamon sticks throughout the apples, then spread sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice on top. Cover and cook on high for 4-6 hours or until apples are brown down. Use a pastry cutter, berry smasher, or immersion blender to smash apples to desired consistency. If they're still in large chunks, cook for another hour until they're easier to blend. I like to leave them a little chunkier, but feel free to blend until smooth if you like.
- Taste the apples. Depending on how sweet the apples are and your own tastes, you may want to stir in additional sugar.
- Turn off the crockpot, allow to cool to warm or room temperature, then store applesauce in freezer safe bags in the freezer or in the fridge for up to a week.
Recipe adapted from Skinny Taste
What if I don’t have cinnamon sticks? How much cinnamon should I substitute?
I would start with a teaspoon. You could add more to taste if you want once it’s cooked and still warm.
I did this the other day – I used a few of the apples we picked recently, and then remembered that the apples I picked and cored last year were still in my freezer. Since it’s been a year, they wouldn’t be great for much else, so I threw them in too – frozen, with skins completely on. Thanks to the stick blender when all was said and done, the skin is invisible and my family loved it. Thanks for sharing!