Homemade Apple Sauce

Making apple sauce to herald the new fall is such a soul-satisfying thing to do. I love how the cinnamon smell laced with warm apples permeates every corner of our home, making it feel full and cozy. Not to mention the joy of starting new traditions with Alice - it's so exciting to "make a tradition." It's powerful in it's own way, saying and doing things you will do every year for years to come. 

what a cute little apple stealer/helper I have!

Apple sauce will be one for the books and is at the same time basic and hard. The recipe is simplicity itself:

8 apples; peeled, cored, and chopped

1.5 c water

.5 c sugar

1 t cinnamon

But the hard work is peeling, coring, and chopping up those orchard gems. I'm old fashioned and peeled them with a potato peeler and cored/cut them with a paring knife, but I'm sure you can cut the time down with actual utensils made for this sort of work. 

So I started with these beauties from my friend Stacie's tree.

Aren't they beautiful?! And that baby is pretty darn adorable, too. After fawning over their autumn-perfectness and playing food-photographer, I finally washed and went to town on them. One and a half hours later, I finished peeling, coring, and cutting them...

Yeesh. I was smart, though, and parked my derriere in a dining room chair through the whole process. After I finished, they weighed in at 3.72 pounds. Obviously, I made a lot more than "8 apples" but they were small and I wanted to make a big batch. I doubled the recipe but should have used less water - I sort of "guessed" at how much 3.72 pounds would equal in normal-sized apples. I guessed high, and wrong. But my dad was there to save the day and suggested I let them simmer a little longer. It worked! Who knew? My dad, the culinary hero. 

After cutting them up, I threw them in a pot, brought them to a boil with the water, sugar, and cinnamon and then simmered them over medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes until them were soft. I then took them off to let them cool. Once they weren't steaming, I used an immersion blender to blend them in the pot. If you have an upright blender you can blend in batches. Then I poured the delectable sauce in jars and voila! Homemade fall. Buen provecho!

All in a day's work...