We spent some time in the mountains over Labor Day weekend. The cool crisp air made me crave all things fall! However, lest I overwhelm my family and Food L'amor friends with an overload of pumpkin, spice, and everything nice too prematurely, I went with the most versatile and year-round useful thing to make in the fall....Applesauce!
I use applesauce in lots of sweet treats and as a replacement for some oil in baked goods. Not only does it sub for oil, milk, and sugar in lots of recipes, it's also just great for the little ones to snack on. Although for most recipes the following substitutions work, it doesn't work for all.
If you're making gluten free and grain free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Squares for example, substituting applesauce for the eggs would only leave you with a pan of mush. If the eggs are there to replace the stability of gluten in binding the ingredients then replacing them with applesauce won't work.
Here's a tip: If the base ingredients are nut flours without much if any starches, such as arrowroot, tapioca, corn starch, rice flour, oat flour, or gluten flours like wheat, then the eggs are a necessity! However, for just about anything else applesauce is your golden ticket to a healthy, fluffy, and delicious bread or dessert.
Baking With Applesauce Substitution Guide:
I got a big box of Fuji apples at my local market and went to work. I made sure to add a healthy dash of ground cinnamon to a couple batches...because it's just delicious! It took a couple days and a few batches to get through all the apples, but since I bottled the applesauce I know all that work will last up to a year in a cool dry pantry and we'll be enjoying healthy baked treats naturally sweetened with applesauce.
Homemade Applesauce
(No Sugar Added)
Fill an 8-quart pot about 2/3 full with peeled, cored, and sliced apples. (If you have a food mill like this one
then you can skip the peeling part and simply run the apples through the mill once they've softened. It will save you a ton of time and also give you a nice rosy pink color to the finished applesauce.)
-
Add about 1.5 - 2 quarts filtered water to the pot of apples.
-
Bring to a boil and allow the apples to simmer until softened, stirring occasionally - about 15 minutes.
-
Add juice of 1 lemon, about 4 tbsp.
-
Add 2 - 4 tsp. ground cinnamon (opt.)
-
Carefully scoop the apples into the food mill or blender.
-
Blend or mill until smooth (or if you prefer you can leave a few apple chunks)
Canning the Applesauce:
- While the apples are simmering, place new canning lids in a pan with water and bring to a low boil.
-
Begin heating water in a large canning pot or preparing pressure cooker.
-
While the applesauce is still hot pour into clean, hot quart or pint jars (I just run my jars through the dishwasher to prep them. Pull one jar out at a time as you fill it and keep the dishwasher closed to keep the others hot.)
-
Put a lid on and either use a pressure cooker or the water bath method to process. Here's a link to the National Center for Home Food Preservation for times and the proper ways to process the applesauce.
-
Set on the counter for at least 24 hours before storing in the pantry for up to 1 year. Once opened, store in the fridge.
Enjoy!