Crockpot Applesauce

::before::

::after::

My neighbors apparently have an apple tree growing in their yard and they have given me three bags filled with these indisputably all natural apples that are best used for cooking. I definitely knew I would need to use these for applesauce. Kevin loves applesauce and I drool over the homemade version. I like mine overflowing with cinnamon and quite chunky. But that's the beauty of making your own sauce--you can tweak it to suite your tastes.

Peeling two bags of apples is a little bit of a pain, I'm not gonna lie, but it is so worth the effort. I found this crockpot version over at A Year of Slowcooking (who's author, Stephanie, was just featured on Good Morning, America in celebration of her newly released crockpot cookbook--Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.) I don't mind standing over stove and monitoring a small 2 quart batch of applesauce, but after experiencing the 6 qt stock pot experience, I was all for the slow cooker!

I altered Stephanie's recipe which indicates the use of 4 large apples, and multiplying the ingredients by 5 (as I used about 40 small apples which could be translated into 20 large.)

40 small apples, peeled, cored and quartered

Juice from one lemon

4 tsp cinnamon (I realize this is a bit more than I needed, but I love cinnamon!)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a large slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours. When apples are tender mash/break apart with a potato masher or a fork.

This many apples yielded 14 cups of apple sauce.

Mmmm, mmm, good.