How To Make Berry Applesauce

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I have not been big on applesauce and even said as much in one of my recent youtube videos. 

That is until I pulled out a jar of my blackberry applesauce I had made last year as a last ditch effort to put up more of my abundant apple harvest after I had enough dried apples and apple butters to feed an army.

Using the berries was certainly a game changer and gave me a new love for homemade applesauce.

I still have bags and bags of raspberries and blueberries I froze up last year from our bushes, not to mention the ones I put up this year, so with my current affinity for berry applesauce, I decided it was time to make more space in my freezer and start canning up some of those berries with this year's apples in what I am realizing is a very versatile form.

Here is a bowl of my homemade yogurt with flax, poppy, hemp, and chia seeds and a big dollop of raspberry applesauce. Such a healthy and scrumptious treat!
One great thing about applesauce is that there is no need to follow any strict recipe or measurements, even for canning it. You can make as little or as much as you like.

I start by peeling, coring, and slicing my apples. Even though I have a nice apple peeler/corer/slicer and I use it, I prefer to do my peeling by hand before running it through that with my OXO peeler. I just like the control I have peeling by hand.

I cut the pieces up fairly small after getting them off the slicer and toss into a large heavy bottom pan with whatever berries I desire. Though I do not have any set ratios, I try to go about 1 part berries to 3 or 4 parts apples.  

As I am sure you can tell, I am using blueberries in today's batch. All I use in my apple sauce is fruit, no added sugar.

I put a lid on the pot and simmer the fruits on a medium heat until all the fruit is very tender, stirring frequently to make sure they are not burning.  

There is no need to add water as the berries will make enough liquid to cook the apples and the lid will hold in the steam. 

On a side note, in the photo above I am cooking on our wood stove since it has finally been chilly enough to get fires going.  On clear, warm days when I am not building fires inside, I do this on a solar powered hot plate or on my rocket stove outside.

Once the fruit is well cooked, I then take my stick blender and process until smooth.


 
After I have achieved the desired consistency, I fill my preheated jars using a stainless steel canning funnel.  I like to put a little of the hot fruit sauce in each jar first to make sure the jars stay hot, then I proceed to top each jar off one by one. I do the same with anything I am hot packing.
 

I wipe each rim to make sure they are clean, put on the hot canning lids and bands and process via the hot water bath method for 15 minutes, making sure I have at least an inch of water covering the jars. 


Once the jars are cooled and sealed, I clean them up and put them away in my pantry. 

Such a good feeling knowing I am making the most of the apples I am blessed with from our tree and that they will last us for years to come in storage.  I always try to think that next year may be a bad year for harvest so I do not like to waste a thing and keep ourselves a couple years or so ahead on our home preserved foods.

Here is a video I did on making blackberry applesauce:
 

Hope this post was a useful one and you will find new ways to experiment with your autumn bounty. Thank you for your time Faithful Reader! ~Heidi


Other posts you may like:

Catnip Medicinal and Garden Benefits
Making Bread with a Fermentation Starter
Making Your Own Natural Toothpowder or Paste









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