Applesauce Party

This weekend I participated in my family's annual Applesauce Making Party. Well, really, my dad and I made applesauce, with some help from my nephews and an honorable mention to DJ. For as long as I can remember, we have made our own applesauce. We usually make it once a year and freeze the results to enjoy throughout the year. My dad is not a chef, or even a cook, really. My mom generally cooked for the family while I was growing up, with little help from dad. He did, however, have a few staples that surprised us: homemade applesauce and pizza.

Although the thought of making applesauce may seem daunting, it's really not quite as difficult as you would imagine. First, you have to buy your apples. My dad had Jonathon apples this time, and they were a bit soft. Generally, any tart cooking apples tend to be pretty good. We used 2 bushels and ended up with approximately 30 quarts and 22 pints. I think.

Once you have your apples, you begin by peeling, coring, and slicing your apples. This is usually the most difficult part. We have a slicer/peeler/corer contraption, but it did not peel the apples very well this go-round. As I mentioned, the apples were a little soft, so the pressure from the peeler pushing against the apple, along with the coring mechanism, seemed to just make the apple crumple. So, I had to peel the apples by hand, using a vegetable peeler, before putting them through the corer/slicer. Once you have your apples, cored, sliced and peeled, you put them in a big pot and add enough water to cover the bottom, about an inch deep (below).

Cook the apples on medium heat, stirring occassionally and adding water as needed, to keep the apples from sticking and becoming too thick.

When the apples are cooked enough so that most of the large chunks are gone and the remaining chunks are soft enough that you can easily mash them with the back of your spoon, they are ready to be removed from the heat. The picture below shows you about what the consistency should be:

After you remove the apples from the heat, you want to run them through some kind of a collander, strainer, or sieve. We didn't have a proper sieve (note: Christmas idea for dad!), so we simply used an over-the-sink mesh strainer. Put a larger bowl under the strainer and, using a spatula or some other device, force the apples through the strainer. You want to do this until the only stuff remaining in the strainer is uncooked pieces of apple or remaining skin. I know, it will seem like this step takes a long time, but keep forcing it through, until you've got hardly anything left. After you've strained the apples, you are ready to sweeten and season them to taste. We generally add cinnamon and sugar. I teased my dad and told him that he likes his applesauce like candy, because he adds more sugar than I tend to prefer. The applesauce is, in my opinion, actually pretty good without sugar. But, I lost that argument!
After your applesauce tastes the way you want it, you can then pour it into freezer bags and enjoy throughout the year--just defrost it in the microwave or on the stove top. You could probably also submerge the ziploc bags into warm water. I also guess you could can it instead of freezing it, but we've never tried it!