Sunday, September 8, 2013

Crock Pot Apple Sauce



When it is cool and rainy outside I crave warm comfort foods that fill my house with the smell of a "home".  This weekend, Crock Pot Apple Sauce was the trick.  Wait... did I just say cool and rainy, in September, in Arizona???  Yes I did... can you believe it?  I can't hardly believe it myself.  This weekend we got a freak storm that rolled in Saturday night, it has been raining on and off since then.  See... typically here in AZ we get down-pours that last for 30 minutes or so and then they quit.  As fast as they come in they leave...but this weekend was different, it was like I was back in Northern California in March. It was a steady rain for hours and hours... pure bliss for these desert rats!

With the nice drizzle I decided it was time to put the fresh apples I bought to good use.  I wanted to share this SUPER EASY, NO SUGAR ADDED, AMAZING, Crock Pot Apple Sauce recipe.  When you cook it low and slow like this the sugars in the apples do something special, it starts to taste like pie filling!!

Ingredients:

10 large or 20 small apples - enough to fill a crock pot, just toss them in to check
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp of cinnamon (I like mine as "cinnamon apple sauce" so you can use less if you don't love cinnamon as much as I do)
DID YOU NOTICE?  No SUGAR!

Tools:

Apple Peeler - I use one like this http://amzn.to/1aWSiy5
Crock Pot - this one is great: http://amzn.to/14DZ2cN

Recipe:

1) Peel and core the apples (let your kids eats the "strings" they will love them)
2) Place the apples in the crock pot (don't worry if they are perfect, you will never notice)

3) Add remaining ingredients and stir to coat well (yumm... already smells good)

4) Place on High heat and cover for 4 hours. Stirring and "chopping" with your spoon whenever you think about it, I try to stir it once per hour. Usually it smells so go I go to check and taste more often. :-) 

This is what it looked like after 1 hour

After 2 hours

After 3 hours

After 4 hours

5) Enjoy!! That's it -can you believe it? I store part of the batch in a large mason jar in the fridge to enjoy for the week - it is sooo good on pork chops.  I also poured some in ice cube trays and froze it for baby food. 

If you like your apple sauce with absolutely no chunks, you can puree it in a blender or food processor, just be careful working with hot liquids. Our family likes it chunky or "home style" it reminds us of pie filling! 

What is your favorite food to cook to make your house smell yummy?

This post has been shared on:
Old Fashioned Friday by Our Heritage of Health 

6 comments:

  1. Yum! This is my preferred method for making apple sauce - who wants to watch a pot??

    I mix in some grassfed butter when it's all done - sounds weird, but it's absolutely delicious.

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    Replies
    1. Jen, I TOTALLY thought of adding some grassfed butter to this recipe, but I wanted to keep it paleo so I decided not too. Great minds think alike - I am going to add a dab when I feed it to my 11 month old, he could use the extra yummy healthy fat. Thanks!!

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  2. Have you ever made it without peeling the apples? I don't have a peeler so maybe I'll try to cut with a paring knife...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne, I have but it really depends on the apple variety. Some varieties have thick (hard to break down) peels. If you find apples with thinner skins it should be fine. You can always peel your apple with a potato peeler and just slice and core by hand. Let me know if you try it.

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  3. I love how simple this recipe is AND it fits the paleo autoimmune protocol. So, thank you! I just started a weekly Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable through my blog, and I would love it if you linked up this recipe. I’m trying to expand resources for the AIP community. Here’s the link to the first one:

    http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/10/30/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-1/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, this is one of my favs! I will be sure to link up to it on your blog. Thanks for stopping by!

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