Homemade Applesauce – Basic Recipe

Votes: 5

Time: 40 min.
Complexity: easily
Quantity: 2 tbsp.

There's nothing easier than making homemade applesauce! Besides being a healthy food for babies, applesauce has a variety of uses. It's added to dietary baking dough, used in meat sauces, spread on bread instead of jam, added to ice cream, and even eaten as a low-calorie dessert, as 1 kg of apples only requires 2 tablespoons of sugar (or less, depending on the apples' natural sweetness). Use several different varieties for a more flavorful puree, and a little lemon juice will enhance and balance the sweet apple flavor. At the end of the recipe are some ideas for applesauce with healthy flavors.

The recipes use measuring containers with the following volumes:
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Ingredients for the recipe:

1 kg of mixed apples (e.g. Golden Delicious, Gala, Honeycrisp or Mackintosh; about 4), peeled and sliced
Up to 2 tbsp. sugar
Lemon juice, to taste

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

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Recipes with similar ingredients: applesauce (puree), apples

Cooking the dish according to the recipe:

Combine the apples, sugar, and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium; cover and simmer until the apples are very soft and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 20 minutes (or microwave in a large microwave-safe bowl, covered, for 10 minutes).
Add lemon juice to the applesauce to taste, then transfer to a blender or food processor and puree (or puree in a saucepan with an immersion blender).

Transfer the applesauce to a bowl and refrigerate until completely chilled.

Flavorings:

Apricot
Stir in 1/4 cup apricot jam.

Raspberry
Add 1 cup raspberries while the applesauce is still warm; mash lightly.

Spiced cranberry
While the applesauce is still warm, stir in 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup dried cranberries.