Delicious Applesauce (with Cinnamon, Honey & Lemon)

When apples are in season and cheap, I love to make and preserve lots of our favourite applesauce. It contains no sugar, but is sweetened instead with honey, and the cinnamon and lemon in it give it a delicious flavour! During winter, my kids would have a couple of spoons full on their breakfast porridge instead of sugar. We also like it on top of cereal, added to plain yoghurt, served with pork on the rare occasion we have that, or if I Iet them, the kids (and my husband!) will just eat it straight!

I'm going to walk you through how I make it, then the concise version of the recipe is at the bottom of this post.

I can't wait for the day our baby apple trees produce enough to supply our own apples for this recipe, but in the meantime I'm grateful for our own honey and lemons from our tree or a friend's.

Recently, some nice apples were on sale for 99c/kilo, so I purchased several bags full. Pictured are just over half the apples I used this time. All together, the apples made just over 11 litres of applesauce.

The first step is to wash, core and cut up the apples. There is generally NO need to peel them for this recipe - in fact I prefer not to, as it gives the sauce a richer flavour and retains maximum nutrients. However, when using apples that are not spray-free, I do peel them as even after washing, a lot of spray residue is on and in the skin. So I peeled these ones. 

I have a nifty gizmo for coring and cutting up the apples in one fell downward push - this makes the job very fast, especially when peeling isn't needed, and ensures the pieces are of an even size, so cook at the same rate. But it doesn't really matter too much - just chop them up and dump them in a large pot with some water in it as you go.

The gizmo has a metal circle in the middle, and metal blades radiating out from it, within a plastic holder with two handles. Various models are available, such as THIS ONE at Fishpond.

As I was short of time, I chose to make this applesauce in stages. First, I cut up and cooked the apples; I had to do this in two batches as I could only fit half in my largest stock pot. Actually, when doing the second half (pictured above) there were too many for the pot, so I put the rest in a smaller pot too cook. Once they were cooked, I pureed the cooked apples in the food processor, only adding just enough of the liquid to enable it to whiz them smoothly. I measured the amount of applesauce, and placed it in a large bowl, covered, in the fridge overnight - I had just on 11 litres. The next day, I poured half the applesauce back into the pot at a time, adding the other ingredients and bottling it. Now, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Apples
Note: the quantity of the rest of the ingredients depends on how much apple puree you have. I will give the amount for 6 cups of puree and 6 litres of puree (the amount I get after filling my biggest pot with apples)

Cinnamon & Honey Applesauce

To each 6 cups of puree:
3 TBSP lemon juice
1/3 cup honey
1/3 tsp finely grated lemon rind (zest)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Dash salt (optional)

For 6 litres of puree:
180ml lemon juice
1 1/3 cup honey
Finely grated rind from 1 1/2 large lemons
3 tsp cinnamon
Dash or so of salt (optional)

Method
Wash, peel if desired, core and cut up apples. Cook in a large non-aluminum pot with sufficient water until soft. Use a slotted spoon to scoop apples into blender. Puree in blender or food processor until smooth, adding minimal fluid for a thick sauce, or a bit more for a thinner sauce. Measure total volume of puree.

Return puree to washed pot and add rest of ingredients. Bring to boil, stirring regularly, and simmer 5 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterile jars, leaving 3/4 inch head space, and seal.

For details on how to prepare and sterilize jars and seals, see THIS POST.

After the jars have cooled overnight, wipe outside with cloth to remove any spill residue, check seals, and store. If any have not sealed properly, put in fridge and use up, or pour into containers and freeze.