I have major guilt about trying to provide nutritionally-dense food for my family on days when I just feel exhausted from work. Can you relate? I don’t want to serve canned, sugar-laden food to my family. Instead, I want the time to can or freeze food like my mom and grandmas used to do! My solution: my trusty slow cooker! Once again, my favorite kitchen appliance allowed me to adapt a recipe that I used to cook and stir over several hours and made it virtually hands-free! My Slow Cooker Applesauce takes only ten minutes (if that) of prep time, cooks all day, and is ready to put in the freezer or water bath in thirty minutes or less.
Slow Cooker Applesauce Recipe…
This is absolutely the fastest, freshest, and easiest applesauce recipe! I don’t waste time peeling, coring, or cutting up apples. Instead, the farm-fresh apples are washed and cored and thrown into my large 6 quart slow cooker. I add 1-2 tablespoons of water per apple and (sometimes) 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon and let the slow cooker do the work for the next 9-10 hours. The slow cooker does a great job of keeping the apples from scorching (as can happen when applesauce is made on the stove top). NOTE: 1 cup=16 Tablespoons 🙂
I choose to use Macintosh apples for my slow cooker applesauce recipe because of their natural sweetness. However, feel free to use whatever apples are your favorite! If you wish, you can add a little sugar to the warm applesauce, but I don’t. I believe we eat waaaay too much sugar, and every little bit I can cut out helps. 🙂
My Kitchenaid stand mixer has an attachment that would make fast use of this applesauce, but I also have a food mill. It is easier to clean, just as fast, and makes a lot less mess! So, for slow cooker applesauce, I choose to use the food mill. It is an inexpensive kitchen tool that has a good variety of uses. I use the finest size sieve and it makes a perfectly smooth sauce. My kids love it! (If you were making applesauce for baby food, I would highly recommend the food mill!)
Below are the leftover skins, seeds, and cores of the apples after going throw the food mill. Isn’t the lack of waste amazing!? Slow Cooker Applesauce cooks the apples down so well, almost all of the apple gets used.
My favorite part of this recipe is the beautiful rosy color! By cooking the entire apple, the lovely blush of the Macintosh skins color the sauce. You can tell by looking at this applesauce that it is not your usual open-a-jar-full-of-sugar sauce! 🙂
Slow Cooker Applesauce: Perfect for Working Moms!
Notes
Any cooking apple will work for this recipe, though the amount of water added to the slow cooker will depend on the juiciness of the apple. I would recommend 1-2 T. of water per apple. (There are 16 T. in 1 cup.) If the sauce is too thick after processing, it can be reduced on the stove top, but be careful of scorching!
Ingredients
- 20-25 large apples (Macintosh are my cooking apple of choice.)
- 1-2 T. water per apple (for 22 apples, this is 2 3/4 c. of water)
- 1 T. ground cinnamon, if desired
- sugar, if desired (I wouldn't recommend)
Instructions
- Wash apples well.
- Cut apples into quarters and place in crock of 6 qt. slow cooker.
- Add water and cinnamon, if desired.
- Cook over low until apples are softened, 8-10 hours.
- In batches, add apples to food mill and process until all that's left in food mill are pieces of skin and seeds.
- After all apples have been run through the food mill, cool applesauce and freeze or add to canning jars and process in a water bath.
I hope you’ll try Slow Cooker Applesauce with your family! I truly believe we can change our health and that of our families by simply eating better, less processed, food. As a working mom, I know that’s hard! But I think the little extra effort is worth it! The slow cooker makes my life so much easier when it comes to home-cooked meals and using farm-fresh ingredients. If you’re interested in learning about more recipes that are healthy and can be made in the slow cooker, you might like my Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce from Garden Tomatoes, Slow Cooker White Bean Stew, or my Five Minute Roast Beef.
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