Homemade Applesauce

I have always loved applesauce. It's one of my favorite "treats" to put in my lunch that I take to work. It may make me feel a bit like a 7 year old, but hey, I love it! And Brody now loves it too! I never realized just how easy it is to make. I got this wild whim when we were at the grocery store one day to give it a shot, thinking I was going to be getting into something horrible complicated, I carved out the afternoon for this activity. I was so wrong. Let me tell you, the hardest, most time consuming part of this recipe was peeling and cutting the apples, and that took me a whole maybe ten minutes. And I had the cutest little helper doing it, so the time flew by. Like a lot of the things I make, I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe and tweaked just a tad. You can find the original recipe  here

Here's what you'll need...

• 6lbs apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 slices
• 1 cup Apple Cider 
• Juice of 1 orange
• 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

And that's it folks. You are four ingredients away from deliciousness.

1. Get yourself a big ole mess of apples. And having a handsome, handy little helper doesn't hurt either!

2. Peel, core and dice up that big ole mess of apples. I used an apple slicer (you know the big circle kind that doesn't always cut all the way through and you end up almost chopping your finger off when you try to push it through? No? Just me?) and it made quick work of it. I did have to use a knife to cut off some core when I didn't line the apple up quite straight enough.

3. Put said big ole mess of apples in a big ole pot. Pour apple cider over and squeeze in the juice of 1 orange. 

 4. Add brown sugar...

5. ...And cinnamon. 

6. Cook over medium heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Isn't this beautiful y'all? And the smell? Fuhgedabouit!

7. Pour into your food processor and and blend until smooth. This recipe makes so much, I had to do it in two batches. 

Enjoy! Applesauce will keep for a week in an airtight container in the fridge. But I would be willing to wager it won't last that long. It for sure didn't at our house!