Applesauce. ::drool::

The only thing I love more than fall décor, is the SMELL of fall. Namely pumpkin. But I love anything that reminds me of fall. There isn't a whole lot that smells better than baking/cooking apples. When you combine that with the ease of the crockpot, well, that makes lazy people like me happy. My kids also LOVE applesauce, and the junk in the store is pretty much worthless nutritionally. And have you seen the price of organic applesauce? Ho-lee cow.

 

Thankfully, my grocery store has these bags they put together full of produce and put them in 99 cent bundles. This time of year, those bags are usually full of 5-7 apples each. Even better!

 

I've tried all green apples. I've tried all red apples. I like a combo of both. If I use more green, I up the brown sugar, if I use more red. I use less. So this recipe is based on using mostly red and a couple green.

 

 

I'm terrible at using a knife to slice apples. Not really sure what it is. So I peel them, and then use this fabulous $5 kitchen tool to do all the work for me ;) If you don't get all the peel, no biggie!

 

 

I put all the apple slices in, pour the lemon juice over and stir them before I put everything else in. I don't know that it would be necessary, but part of me things my kids would have a cow if it was more brown that it already is. I avoid those unnecessary tantrums when at all possible.

 

I cook mine on low for 7-8 hours overnight. My kids, and husband especially, like the applesauce warm so I like for it to be ready first thing in the morning. But if you wanted to cook it on high for four hours, that would work too.

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of the texture, even after cooking it for eight hours. So I stick the cooked apples in my Ninja blender and blend it until it's not chunky anymore.  It's sweet and rich, without a whole lot of extra stuff. And your house will smell DIVINE!

 

 

Ingredients:

 

10 apples

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c water

 

Directions:

Peel and slice apples, toss in lemon juice.

Put all other ingredients over top of the apples in the crockpot and cook on low 7-8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours.

Leave chunky or throw into a blender for a thinner consistency.

 

Makes about 5 cups.