This healthy, refined-sugar free, gluten-free recipe of homemade applesauce can not only be used for baking, but also as a topping or filling for variety of dishes!
One fruit which has always been in our collective consciousness from time immemorial is apple! Which fruit did Adam & Eve gobble up, even when instructed not to, by God himself?! What fell on Isaac Newton’s head, and enlightened him to discover gravity? What fruit a day ‘keeps the doctor away’? Named after the same fruit, there’s even a tech giant, whose products are as tempting as the fruit itself!
Of course, apple is widely celebrated throughout the world, and growing up, my family was no exception. As I mentioned earlier, my father has always been a fruit lover, and he would ensure we had loads of fruits at home on any given day. And because apple has such great health benefits too, we were always encouraged to eat as many as we wanted. I think that has stuck, and even to this day, I can’t cross a fruit store without looking for some good, juicy apples!
Knowing my love for apples, as well as for eating healthy, it should then not come as a surprise that I am going to talk about an interesting dish today – homemade applesauce!
Planning to make the best use of apples? I would suggest you to surely give this homemade applesauce recipe a try.
Where can homemade applesauce be used?
Short answer – in a thousand different ways! Here are the top five ways:
Healthy Baking:
Applesauce can be used as a healthy substitute to vegetable oils in many baking recipes like moist cakes, breads, muffins etc. They add the perfect moisture to baking goods.
Note: Replacing oil or using applesauce in recipes can be tricky, so better experiment in smaller batches while altering recipes.
Desserts:
You can add them over tarts, puddings, parfaits to make delicious desserts even better.
Topping your breakfast bowl:
Bored of your regular break fast? Add a dollop of applesauce to your Chia bowl, Mueseli, Porridge, Overnight oats and enjoy!
Smoothie:
Yes! Try adding unsweetened applesauce to your smoothie to add those extra nutrients that apples bring in.
Chicken/Pork dishes
You heard it right! Applesauce can also be used in chicken and pork dishes to give you the most juiciest of chicken/pork dishes.
How long can you store homemade applesauce?
Homemade applesauce are preservative free but if stored properly can be easily stored in refrigerator for 7-10 days.
Alternatively, you could also freeze them, in which case, they could be stores for about a month.
How to store homemade applesauce?
Storing applesauce:
Boil glass containers in water and let them cool and dry properly. Once the applesauce has cooled properly, transfer it into these sterile glass containers and ensure that the lid is tight. Store it in refrigerator.
Freezing Applesauce:
Before packing the applesauce make sure it has properly cooled down. Then transfer the sauce in freezer containers without overloading the containers. Ensure that there is at least an inch of headspace in the freezer containers. Close the lid tight and freeze them to make them last longer.
Looking out for more healthy refined sugar free recipes? Check out Kesar pista Mango lassi (refined sugar free).
This healthy, refined sugar free, gluten free recipe of of homemade applesauce can not only be used for baking but also as a topping or filling for variety of dishes.
- 3 apples
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/8 cup jaggery
- 1 tsp lemon juice (if apples are sour adjust as per taste)
- salt to taste
- 4-5 walnuts chopped (optional)
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Peel the apples and remove the cores and chop them into small pieces of 1 inch.
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In a pan bring water to boil, add finely chopped apples, cinnamon stick, lemon juice, jaggery and add water enough to submerge the ingredients well.
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Close the lid of the pan and let the mixture cook for at least 20 -30 minutes till the apples turn mushy.
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At the end, add salt to taste. If you prefer a more sweeter applesauce, adjust he quantity of jaggery accordingly.
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The applesauce at this stage will be chunky, but if you prefer a smooth applesauce (like I do), run an immersion blender through this mixture to turn this into a smooth sauce.
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Top the applesauce with some chopped walnuts.
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Transfer it into sterile glass containers and store them in refrigerator. You can alternatively also freeze them.
- If the apples are sour you can reduce the quantity of line juice accordingly
- According to your sweet preference, adjust the quantity of jaggery in it.
- If you don't have honey, you can alternatively add honey to applesauce as well
- If you have sweeter varieties of apple then you can also make a naturally sweet applesauce by skipping the jaggery all together.