Applesauce kludge FTW

[truepenny]

So matociquala, in a fit of autumnal generosity (and possibly because I had been whining about the applesauce of days gone by), sent me apples. And today I cowboyed up and made applesauce out of them.

(For those who are confused as to why this is a big deal: I don't cook. mirrorthaw does all the cooking in our house. But mirrorthaw, having been startled by Carmen Miranda as a small child, does not eat fruit. So as far as the apples were concerned, it was me or nobody.

(The problem is compounded by the fact that my mother is a gourmet-quality hobbyist chef, and so the applesauce I remember fondly is applesauce, not the over-processed gruel that is generally inflicted upon one under the guise of applesauce. The bar I set myself, in other words, was pretty darn high.)

For future reference (i.e., in case I ever end up trying to do it again), this is what I did:


I started with Julia Child's Apple Charlotte recipe. Apple Charlotte is possibly the best thing that can happen to an apple, but I have neither the patience nor the mad skillz to make it--especially not since I'd be the only one eating it.

Julia saith (this is the condensed version):

6 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and cut into rough 1/8" slices
1/2 cup apricot preserves, forced through a sieve
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark rum
3 Tb butter

Cook the apples on low heat until tender. Beat in the other ingredients, bring to a boil, and stir until you have a thick, stiff puree.

And then you go one with the rest of the Apple Charlotte insanity.

What I actually did: I had two pounds of apples (minus the massive bruises on two of the apples), which I cored and sliced. I left the skins on because, like Cerebus, I think the skins are the best part. I cooked them until tender and then added:

10 oz Crofter's Apricot Preserve (small jar)--and never mind this sieve nonsense
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 tsp vanilla extract (um, maybe? the extract was very exuberant)
2 Tb butter (because my math failed me. oops.)
And a generous sploshing about of Lakka-light, the Finnish cloudberry liquor my parents brought us from their trip to Scandinavia.

Then, while boiling and stirring, I added two generous pinches of ginger and an uncertain amount of cinnamon.

I did not boil it down into puree, because one of the things I particularly like about homemade applesauce is the actual chunks of apple in it.


I think, frankly, that I would have gotten no more than I deserved if this had been an epic kitchen fail. But it has come out shockingly well. If not my mother's applesauce, it's a decent approximation. And it is OMG tasty, especially if you have a sweet tooth like mine.

And I did not cut myself even once while making it.

Comments

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

That sounds fabulous.

The easiest applesauce recipe I have ever learned, although it's quite far from organic, is this:
Take a 5 lb. bag of apples (I like Granny Smiths but almost any will do), peel, core, cut into coarse chunks. Place a large pot over low heat and add a small amount of butter to bottom of pan so apples don't stick. Add apples and one bag of cinnamon red hots. Cook slowly until apples are tender and partially broken down. Eat.

It makes a curiously pinkish but delicious applesauce and works well in a crockpot too.

The last time I made applesauce I went with brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and a pinch of garam masala. It was wonderful.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Ah, American ingenuity at its finest. *g*

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

That sounds fab.

And here my applesauce is the dull kind that involves apples and water (so they don't stick to the pan), and sometimes cinnamon, but not usually. This sounds so *luxe*.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Apricots. Apricots are key.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Could you be more specific about how one actually cooks apples? I mean, are you boiling them in water or just putting them by themselves in a covered pan? Low heat or high heat? About how long? (Minutes or hours?) If no water, do you grease the pan so they don't burn and stick?

Apparently I have no apple-cooking-instincts except as related to my own mother's applecake recipe.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Um. I can tell you what I did, but that's it--and what I did was what Julia told me. I am seriously no kind of authority here.

It was just the apples by themselves, on low heat, in a non-stick, covered pan, for the first twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. (As they cook, they produce their own liquid.) Then I added the other stuff and brought it up to high heat, stirring, as Julia says, almost continually, until it reached the consistency I wanted. Which took probably fifteen or twenty minutes (Julia says ten, but, you know, YMMV).

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I could totally improvise applesauce from the information you've given now, but I was just lacking that one essential bit of basic information!

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I have just achieved applesauce. A more basic one, since I didn't have rum or apricot preserves, but very tasty - apparently the apples in my local store that looked like tart cooking apples really were.

But I have more than the recipe to that you for. Cranberries or cranberry sauce are not an easy commodity to find in Taipei, and I don't think I'd have thought of making applesauce instead if this discussion hadn't been lurking in the back of my mind. So thank you for helping to make Thanksgiving abroad a little more homelike.

[rhia-hilldancer.livejournal.com]

mmm that sounds delicious!

you don't need to add water to the apples - sugar makes the apples juice up.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful and very adventurous! When I did mine, I used the slow cooker. "Mine," of course, meaning, "Bear's recipe because she posted it and I thought, 'I could do that!'"

It came out great, but mmmmm apricot.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

And if I can do it, anyone can do it.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it would work if I did your recipe, but in the slow cooker.

When I made Bear's, I had to google "star anise" because I didn't know what it was. Then I went to the store and stared at the scary herbs and such until I found it.

I don't know why we had the cloves, and I don't know how old they were. But they worked!

Anyway, yay you! And enjoy it!

[floatingtide.livejournal.com]

My slow cooker makes awesome apple and pear sauce. I have pear trees in my yard and I discovered the trick to it through a combination of sheer laziness and one ton of fruit.

All I do is put a splash of water at the bottom of the cooker and fill it to the top with big chunks of pear. As it cooks down I throw in more and more pear (and/or apple).

The trick is to do this for at least 24 hours. I set it on low overnight and then back up to high and stir occasionaly. Really, really occasionally, like once every four hours.

The long slow cooking gives it a wonderful caramel taste.

[mirrorthaw.livejournal.com]

Dude, that Carmen Miranda is some scary shit.


Can't sleep Carmen Mirandas will eat me...
Can't sleep Carmen Mirandas will eat me...
Can't sleep Carmen Mirandas will eat me...

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

...ooo. I need to get me some apples.

[tobysionann.livejournal.com]

I left the skins on because, like Cerebus, I think the skins are the best part.

That was awesome. And I agree.

Sounds tasty! Glad it was a sucess. :)

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

Homemade applesauce huh?

Interesting. I'm actually pretty good at the cooking/baking thing-been making homemade pies for years for example, but even I had never thought of making applesauce by hand. Thanks for this

*starts to slog through the Great Pile that is my book room*