Homemade Applesauce with Coconut Sugar: Sage & Cinnamon

We recently moved to North Carolina and in a 5 mile radius around our new house is over 10 apple orchards! We are in apple heaven here and have been apple picking a few times already.

I love fresh picked apples and I’m, also, a big fan of applesauce! I love applesauce on meat, veggies, and just straight out of the jar. However, it’s hard to find a Paleo-friendly applesauce without added sugar or preservatives so we made our own using coconut sugar. It came out beautifully! I made a fresh sage applesauce to pair with meat dishes and a cinnamon one that my kids LOVE!

You have the option to can or freeze your homemade applesauce. I’ve done both and both turned out perfect! Remember if you do can them, it loses some of it’s nutritional content (but still surpasses store-bought).

Homemade Applesauce with Coconut Sugar (Sage and Cinnamon)

makes 3 Pints

Ingredients:

• 6lb apples – a mixture of different kinds are best but not necessary
• 6TB of lemon juice or juice of 2 fresh-squeezed lemons
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar/crystals
• Cinnamon Applesauce: 1TB ground cinnamon
• Sage Applesauce: 1TB freshly minced sage

Supplies Needed/Encouraged

• Apple Peeler
• Large Pot
• Immersion Blender
• Pint-sized Mason Jars
• Canning pot (if doing the canning method)

Directions: 

1) If you are canning, clean the jars and have them hot and ready.

2) Pour the lemon juice into a large pot (I used my dutch oven). Peel and core each apple, then cut into chunks. I HIGHLY recommend this peeler if you want to save lots of time. Drop the chunks into the lemon juice and coat each apple piece with lemon juice.

3) Stir in the coconut sugar

4) Add about an inch of water to the bottom of the pot; just enough to prevent the apples from sticking.

5) Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until the apples are soft, about 20 minutes. Then uncover the pot and cook for another 5 minutes.

6) Take your immersion blender (if you don’t have one, you can use a blender or food processor) and smooth the apple mixture to your liking. You can leave it however chunky you want.

7) Now bring the applesauce to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook while stirring. You will see the sauce start to thicken.

8) This is where you stir in the cinnamon or sage. You can split the mixture in half and do half sage, half cinnamon or just use one.

9) If freezing: let the applesauce cook, then spoon into freezer bags and freeze! Should be good for a year or more in the freezer.

If Canning: ladle the hot applesauce into your pint-sized jars, leaving a little headspace. Seal the jars tight with the lids and process the jars for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath in your canning pot. The sealed jars are good for a year!

10) Enjoy your homemade, Paleo-friendly applesauce on anything and everything you can think of!

 

This recipe is shared on: Small Footprint Family, Natural Family Today, Girl Meets Nourishment, Our Heritage of Health, Thank Your Body, Cultured Palate, Holistic Squid, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, The Prairie Homestead, and Real Food Forager.