Applesauce

I'll be honest with you all here. I'm no applesauce expert. I once made applesauce that was really good with jonathan and gala apples, and I've used golden delicious also and it's not bad, but there was more flavor with the gala/jonathan mix. In my life now, I've made a whole 3 batches of applesauce. Now another bit of honesty--even though homemade applesauce is usually better tasting than store applesauce, I've gotten store applesauce 3 cans for $1.00 during case lot sales and it's a heck of a lot easier than making applesauce. BUT I had some apples so I made applesauce anyway.

Step 1: Wash and quarter apples and put them in a pot. You don't have to core or peel them, but I do like to cut off the blossom end as that little stuff sometimes makes it through the sieve into the sauce.
Step 2: Pour some water over them and cook them until they are soft. I poured about 2 quarts of water + 2 TB Fruit Fresh over the apples in my pressure canner, then cooked them up to about 12 lbs pressure and let it cool off. Maybe I overcooked them, I don't know, but it sure was faster than boiling/steaming them all day . . .
Step 3: Scoop the apples out and run them through a sieve. I have one that hooks to my Kitchenaid, but I've used a hand crank one and I have one that's just a cone shaped bowl with tiny holes in the side and has a wooden thing like a pestle (you know a mortar and pestle) that you just smash stuff against the sides and the good stuff squirts out. Anyway, I use the Kitchenaid one because it's easy. Here it is all ready for apples:
Put the apples in the top, turn it on, and the strainer part strains out the good stuff which falls down the little ramp into the first bowl, and the seeds/core/peel come out the end into the second bowl. Like this:Hey, that picture also shows the strainer/scooper I used to get the apples out--it's like a colander with a handle so I don't get so much liquid with my apples. (It's clear, but it's sitting in the bowl catching the apple scraps.) Here's the applesauce in the bowl on the left and the scrappy ick (my kids call it apple poo) in the container on the right:

Step 4: Put the applesauce in a pot and cook it until it's thick enough for ya. Skim the juice off the top when it collects to speed up the process (it collects when you're NOT stirring). I use my pressure cooker pot again--it has never burned anything and it's big. Add sugar if you need it and cinnamon if you want it. Every apple gives a different flavor. My jonathan/gala mix needed LOTS of sugar, but I only added a little to the golden delicious batch.Step 5: Put the applesauce in jars and screw on lids/rings and process in boiling water canner 20 minutes. Of course you'll put the lid on your canner before canning, and yes, that clock says 8:45 and that's not in the morning . . . When they're done in the canner, take the jars out to cool.

I have been just putting lids on the jars cold to save the step of heating them up and really didn't think much of it until my sister asked about whether you really had to heat the lids up or not. Every so often I have a jar or two (especially items packed with liquid--fruits, meat, etc.) that comes out of the canner with a lot less liquid than when I put it in. I'm thinking this may be because of the cold lid not sticking to the jar sufficiently at the start of the canning process, so I'm reforming my ways and heating my lids in a little pot of water for my next year of canning and I'll see if it solves the problem.

I also used about 3 TB of vinegar in my canning water this time (thanks for the idea Emily!) and the jars are all shiny and pretty coming out of the canner. It wasn't enough to take the hard water lines off my canner or to smell vinegar as I canned. I'll have to try this in the pressure canner next time I use it . . .

As for the applesauce, I don't like it much, but I'll eat it. Wade doesn't like it, and only one of my kids does. I have 16 pints of it, so I guess I'll be making applesauce cakes/breads/cookies and hitting the next case lot sale for some applesauce they will eat . . .

More Apples . . . Apple Pie Filling

I had some more apples and thought I'd try making canned apple pie filling. I've never done this before, so I got online and looked up recipes and here's the one I ended up using:

10 Cups Water
4 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Cornstarch
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Put it all in a pot and cook it until it gets thick on medium heat. Fill jars with prepared apples and pour mixture over. Hot water canner for 20 minutes. Recipe makes about 5-6 quarts of filling.

I didn't know how much syrup this would make so I used my pressure canner pot to cook it in. It is big and I've never burned anything in it because the metal is so thick. Turns out I could have used a smaller pot, but it worked okay, especially when I decided to double the second batch.

I ran the apples through the peeler/corer/slicer machine again and put them right into a solution of 2 quarts water+2 TB Fruit Fresh so they wouldn't go brown on me. After soaking, I loaded them in jars awaiting the syrup. It took about 5-6 medium apples for each quart jar.Now, when the recipe says "cook until thick" it does not tell you how thick this stuff gets! And the longer it cooks, the thicker it gets, so by the time I had my apples ready in the jars and the water in the canner boiling, the syrup had gelled up quite thick. When I poured it in the bottles I had to wait for it to trickle down before adding more. The good thing is it was heavy enough I didn't have to chase out air bubbles--it pretty much filled all the gaps by itself.Definitely use a canning funnel on this one! Then wipe the rims of the jars and screw on the lid and ring. Once one jar is done, you can put it in the canner on the raised rack to keep it from getting cold while you're waiting for the syrup to trickle down in the other jars!

DO NOT overfill the syrup! Leave a little more headspace than usual on these bottles, the syrup expands a little when it's canning--there were a few bottles I didn't think would seal, but they all eventually did. You'll need to wash the jars off when they're cooled--they get really sticky! Take off the rings and wash around the threads on the jar and ring so you'll be able to get it off again when you're ready for pie! Here's the jars after they canned and cooled: Yummy!
Here's the "lovely" pie I made with the leftovers. The last run in my canner I put in 7 full bottles and still had a little syrup left in the pot. I didn't want to run the canner to bottle one more bottle full, so I just made a pie with it. I am no Martha Stewart, but it tasted good anyway.

NEXT time I do this recipe I think I'll add the apples to the syrup and pour it all in the bottle together. And I used what I think were golden delicious apples so it is really sweet. Tasty, but sweet--we put ice cream on ours last night and were about sweeted out! A tarter apple might be better.

This pie was real soupy when we ate it still hot. It sets up as it cools, so the next day a slice of pie actually looked like a slice of pie and not 2 pieces of crust swimming in apple cinnamon soup! So if you're making this for company, make it ahead of time so it has time to cool and set up.

Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer

Here's the apple peeler/corer/slicer I use. It is a Back to Basics brand and clamps to the countertop. I've been told you can get a version of this through Pampered Chef as well. When the handle part is pulled back you stick an apple on the prongs with the prongs going into the core from the bottom or the top of the apple with the opposite end aimed toward the coring circle. Then just start turning the handle (kids love this job) and it peels, slices and cores the apple as it goes through the blades. Slick! Makes apples for pies, apple crisp, dehydrating, etc. fast and easy.

Here's the corer/slicer/peeler tool in action. My kids love to eat the peelings also!

Jello Apples

I had a box of apples going soft on me, so I thought I'd better do something with them. I've dehydrated apples plain and dipped in apple juice/cinnamon mixture, but had never tried the jello method, and since I live in Jello capital of the world (Utah) I thought I might as well give it a try.

Here's me and my little helper with apples in various stages. The box on the stove has the apples in it, the handy peeler/corer/slicer machine-a-ma-jig has an apple on it all ready to get sliced up. One bowl on the counter has 2 quarts of water + 2 TB Fruit Fresh in it plus sliced apples (this keeps the apples from going brown), and the other bowl has all the apple junk that went to the compost pile when we were done. And hey, who took that picture before I had my hair done anyway?

Here's how the process went:

Wash apples

Run them through the magic peeler/corer/slicer

Cut the resulting apple spiral in half so you have a bunch of half circles

Put the apple slices in the Fruit Fresh solution

When your Fruit Fresh bowl gets full of apples, take them to the dehydrator and put the apples on the trays

Sprinkle liberally with Jello powder of your choice (I used Raspberry) and load them in the dehydrator

When all the trays are full, dry as directed in your dehydrator's directions--it takes about 10 hours at 135 degrees in my dehydrator.

These are pretty tasty, and lovely colored, but also an extra level of messiness to make than plain ol' dried apples. Sprinkle the Jello on the apples over the sink so you can wash down the extra jello powder. It also leaves lots of sticky sticky sticky on your dehydrator trays, but it washes off pretty well--it's only Jello. Dried apples will last a long time in your storage if they are in airtight containers (ziplocks are NOT airtight). They will last about a week tops if left on the counter where little people can find them and eat them!