Best Homemade Applesauce (sweetened & unsweetened)

Why make this recipe

• Extremely easy: the only step that might take a little bit of time is peeling the apples. The rest is simply dumping them in a saucepan with a few ingredients and letting them cook until very soft before mashing or processing them.
• Flavorings: I like making unsweetened applesauce, but it's just as easy to sweeten or make it flavored by adding cinnamon for example. You can easily adjust the final product depending on what you're using it for.
• Keeps well: it can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks or months if you can it properly (like you would a jam).

Ingredients

• Apples: any type works, but I recommend a mix of red and green apples. As a rule, a pound of apples will render between a cup and a half and two cups of applesauce.
• Water

For sweetened applesauce

• Sweetener: we use white sugar or brown sugar but you can also use coconut sugar, honey, agave, muscovado sugar or maple syrup.
• Pinch of salt: is optional, but a small amount enhances flavors.

Flavorings

• Vanilla: It's a great way to add a tiny bit of flavor, especially when making all-natural applesauce (no sugar added). I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works. 
• Citrus peel: I use lemon peel because it works very well with apples. Orange also pairs well with apples but adds a sweeter citrus flavor, not as sharp as the lemon.
• Cinnamon: ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks, both work but they are different as the latter has a more subtle flavor.
• Other spices: you can use apple pie spice mix, or mix cinnamon with nutmeg, cloves, allspice, mace, or cardamom.

Best apples for applesauce

In theory, any apple you like is good for making applesauce as long as you use fresh ones.

• One kind: you can use just one type. For sweeter apples, I like golden delicious, Gala, or Fuji apples. For tart apples, I recommend the amazing Granny Smith (the green ones).
• Variety of apples: I use a mix of at least two, one of them tart apples like Granny Smith (the green ones), and the other a red one (usually red delicious). I recommend this because the flavor is deeper and one is more acidic, the other sweeter. The mix of both is great. I like choosing between Mc Intosh, Gala, and Red delicious depending on what's in season.

How to make applesauce

This is an easy recipe, so you need little equipment for this.

• Saucepan: the size and width of the pan will determine how long the apples take to soften. The wider and shallower, the faster it will be. Also, the apples will shrink a lot during baking, similar to what happens when we make an apple crisp recipe. So you can fill it up to ¾ with the fruit.
• Spoon or spatula: I use a wooden spoon or sometimes a silicon spoon because my saucepan is enameled. Depending on the type of material, you can use a regular spoon or any other utensil that can easily mix the ingredients.
• Peel the apples and add them to the saucepan with the water. This is as simple as it sounds. The size of the chunks is up to you. The larger the apple pieces the more they will take to soften. Image 1
• Sweetened applesauce. This is the moment where you add the sugar. Image 2

Adding flavorings

They can work for both sweetened and unsweetened applesauce. You can add all of them or only one. That is your choice and it greatly depends on what you're using the applesauce for. I like to make it completely plain because the cinnamon and other flavorings are already part of the muffins or bread.

• Lemon peel: I use the potato peeler and add a strip per pound of fruit. It adds some acid that balances very well the sugar if making sweetened applesauce. Image 3
• Cinnamon: use ground or a cinnamon stick, both work. But I find that the sticks have way less flavor than the ground cinnamon, so I don't usually use them. Image 4
• Vanilla: a little (like ⅛ teaspoon per pound of apples) of pure vanilla extract or paste mellows the other flavors. Don't overdo it unless you want strong vanilla-flavored applesauce. Image 4

Cooking the apples

• Start with low heat and cover the pan. This way the mix will rapidly come to a simmer.
• Uncover and increase to medium heat. Let the whole mixture cook until the apples are very soft and the liquid is consumed by more than half. It will foam a lot and that is fine. Image 5
• Don't let the water consume completely. You don't want the apples to start browning or sticking to the bottom due to a lack of liquid. You just need to soften them enough to process and make a puree.

Processing the apples

• Potato masher: use it for making chunky applesauce. You will easily mash the soft apples but be able to retain some chunks. Image 6
• Immersion blender: for completely smooth applesauce, I find it's the easiest way to process the fruit because it can be done directly in the saucepan right after you remove it from the stove. Image 7
• Blender of food processor: if you use a blender, you might need to let it cool a little because not all blender jars are prepared to hold very hot mixtures. If you use a processor, make sure the amount of apples you make is enough for the steel blades to completely process them. If the amount is not large enough, sometimes the blades can't process it completely.
• Food mill: this is another option for making the apple puree, especially if you don't peel the apples. Pass them through a stainless steel food mill to separate the pulp from the peel. Since I peel my apples, I don't use it, but it's an alternative if you already have it.

Kitchen notes

• Organization: always read the recipe first and make sure you have all the ingredients, at the right temperatures, and also the rest of the equipment and space to make it. This will make the process so much easier!
• Sweeteners: besides the white sugar that's in the recipe, you can use any type of brown sugar (light, dark, muscovado) or even coconut sugar. Alternatively, some maple syrup or honey works very well. I recommend adding them at the end when you remove the pan from the heat. Mix the sweetener and then mash or process the apples. They all sweeten differently, so adjust to your taste.
• Saucepan: use a pan that is large enough to hold all the apples. They shrink a lot during baking. If you fill it no more than half, the apples will cook faster than if you use a saucepan filled to the top.
• Uses: you can use it as a side dish (for pork chops for example), in baked goods like the blueberry applesauce loaf, applesauce muffins, applesauce bread, eat it with a spoon (baby food), or make applesauce pancakes. I love to bake with applesauce and substitute it in some recipes to make them healthier.
• Canning: if you can applesauce in jars it will keep for months in the refrigerator. Here is a step-by-step post on the whole canning applesauce process.