AppleSauce!

We were blessed with fantatic weather today.  The temps were in the low 60's for most of the day which is unheard of this time of year for us.  Bob was busy stacking wood for the winter and I kept myself busy in the house getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  The kids love homemade applesauce so I figured that was one of the items I could get made today.  We are blessed in the fact that behind our home is 90+ acres of apples and the orchards have been picked but not picked clean!  The owner of the orchard is a friend of our so we've obtained permission to pick what is left once they have finished up for the season.  Bob and I took a short ride on the 4 wheeler and got a couple bushels of apples, one for apple sauce and one for pies.

I had meant to make enough applesauce for dinner on Thursday but think I got a little carried away.  We really like applesauce made from Empire apples.  I could not believe how many Empires there still were in the orchard!

The first thing I always do is wash them good, I really want to make certain that they are good and clean prior to getting them ready to cut up. Here's a picture of my sink full of Empire Apples!! Look good hugh???

We have a fantastic "old" gadget that is my mother-in-laws that we use to speed up the pealing and cutting process.  It's great, hooks right to one of the cutting boards and all we have to do is crank the wheel and the apples are peeled and cut up at once!  A little warning here, it can be a little messy so we actually open the dishwasher door and do the peeling with the dishwasher open, saves peels and juice from dripping on the floor.

Here's a nice shot of the mess I'm making, but the mess is so worth it!

I love this shot!  See how nice and evenly the apple is sliced?

I use a really large pan with a thick bottom to cook the apples in and most recipes I found called for adding a lot of water, for this large pot (it's 12 quarts) I only used 2/3 of a cup of water. 

I simmered them for a couple of hours.  Here's a shot of them almost done:

They really cook down fast.  The pot was amost filled to the top when I started and at this point the pot is now about half full.  See the chunks still of apples?  Some people like it this chunky and others like to add sugar and cinnamon, I don't add either.  There are a couple of reason I don't add anything to my applesauce, the first is I've got grandkids and they really don't need the extra sugar plus this makes great babyfood for the wee little ones we've got in our family. I let it simmer for about another hour or so until the bulk of the chunks were gone.  Once it's cooled off I put it into a container that is freezer save and my job is done.  Another thing off my cooking list for Thanksgiving Day!  The homemade applesauce is ready for the kids!

Hope you and your family had a great Sunday!