It will probably be fine. Ina's pretty good with her recipes and balance of flavors.

However Applesauce couldn't be easier..And after you cut your teeth on a recipe, I suggest just doing it. ~giggle~

All it takes is apples. LOL Peeled and cored, if you don't have a food mill..otherwise, wash and quarter and toss in the pot.
Cover and simmer until the apples are to the consistency you want...chunky...smooth, a mixture..some apples will go down to "sauce" very easy, others not so much..Hence why she's got that recipe written with a few varieties.
You can sprinkle with spices if you like and sweeten with whatever you like. If I sweeten applesauce I'll use honey or maple syrup. But if they are sweet apples, you don't need any sweetener.

I'm with Terri! Just peel and slice up a bunch of apples, even the somewhat shriveled ones, add a bit of water, cider or apple juice, cook slowly until very soft, season with some sugar/maple syrup/honey and cinnamon. I like mine chunky. Even my mom commented on how good the last applesauce was that I made. I don't add butter or other fruits. I'm a purist.....;o)

applesauce is only as flavorful as the apples you use...

start with tasty apples and you get tasty applesauce.

Sometimes I do toss in a few ripe pears if I have them..especially if I'm doing "unsweetened".

I cannot agree more applesauce is apples. I make and can a big batch each fall. The only thing I will ever add is honey if the the sauce is not sweet enough. I also grind up the peels and add them to the sauce as it is cooking. The peels have a real good flavor which is not to be missed.

Here is a link that might be useful: traveling and cooking with grandpa

I don't bother to peel the apples. First they get a good washing. Then are quartered and placed in pan, seeds and all. Add a bit of water to cover the bottom and simmer until soft. Then mushed (that's a technical term!)through a strainer or a potato ricer also works well. Then add sugar or whatever to the applesauce. I add a dash of powdered cloves and cinnamon along with a sweetener as needed. This method makes a more colorful applesauce.

joanm, if anything I think that could be a little bit too sweet for me, with the sweet apples, the sweet oranges and the sugar. i'd try it and see, I agree that Ina Garten is pretty consistent in her recipes and I like many of them.

nandina, I never peel the apples either, I just "mush" them through a sieve for a few, or through the Squeezo if I'm canning and have a lot.

The peel adds a nice pink color, depending on the apples. I seldom sweeten applesauce unless the apples are very tart, then I'll use a bit of maple syrup or brown sugar.

I have also found that a mix of apples makes a nice sauce, some "mush" right up and others stay chunkier, and the varying flavors just make it better, somehow.

Annie

Seems a bit involved for applesauce. As others have said, it's such an easy proposition.

Have been experimenting with mine this year. Found a way to make the absolutely BEST applesauce ever.

Pare and core Crispin apples. Paring, coring is important, because if you put your applesauce through a food mill or strainer, you end up with baby food. Much better if you leave it a bit chunky. Cook the crispin apples with a little cider, until they're soft enough for your taste, and have broken up a bit. Add a little brown sugar, a pinch of salt and CEYLON cinnamon to taste. Ceylon is very different from the cinnamon you're used to from the supermarket--the ceylon is lighter, almost citrusy or flowery. It's so much better with apples than cassia. Cook just enough to melt the sugar. Cool, pack into deli containers and freeze

I started making my own applesauce last year, as others have said it is the easiest thing to make. I just peel and core and simmer with a small amount of water, I rarely add sugar. But I love the idea of leaving the peels on, I am trying this with my next batch.

Thanks :)

I usually make my applesauce in the microwave. I don't need to add any water this way. If my apples are big enough, I peel and core, but I often sauce crab apples, which are too small to use otherwise. These I just wash and halve. They have to be sieved after cooking to extract the bits, but as has been mentioned, the skins can impart a nice rosy colour. I don't sweeten, as I generally only use the finished sauce for baking and I try to control the sugar content.

Yum, these recipes all sound delicious! Can you store homemade applesauce for longer than a few days in the fridge or can it be frozen?
I'm wondering why Ina felt compelled to add butter to an otherwise healthy treat? Does it add something that I didn't know was missing?

I don't keep applesauce longer than a week in the fridge and it freezes just fine. IMO, homemade fresh applesauce does not need butter added to it.

If you think of applesauce as a fine puree, then you can cook the apples with the peel on and put them through a food mill to remove the peel and seeds. If you have never tried chunky-style applesauce, peel the apples, cook them, then sweeten to taste and add cinnamon if desired. With a spoon or potato masher, break up the cooked apples to a chunky consistency. If you don't like chunky, you can always puree the cooked mixture as smooth as you like.

Thanks Teresa, I love TJ's chunky spiced applesauce and don't have a food mill, so i'll give your method a whirl once my event is over and when I have some free time! LOL

I have only made applesauce once before, but intend to try it again since my apple trees are mature now. My family just isn't big on applesauce, except for me. I just saw a program of America's Test Kitchen & they made applesauce. It was pretty basic, recommending only 1 type of apple over using a variety. The type they used was one I wasn't familiar with though. Their recipe was simply 4 # apples, 1/4 cup sugar, some salt & water, with options of nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon juice, butter, & some other stuff. Sounds like you just can't mess it up, just depends on your tastes. They did cook the apples with peel on & ran through a food mill. I also like mine chunky, so I'd going to peel mine & skip the food mill.

If you want an exact recipe, here's mine. It's definitely not as sweet as Ina's. I have a food mill so I don't peel the apples. Before the food mill, I peeled the apples and used an immersion blender to puree.
2 1/2 lbs apples, cored and sliced
3 T sugar
3 T water
1 T lemon juice
1 T butter
cinnamon to taste

-Combine the apple slices, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a dutch oven. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover. Continue cooking and stirring apples until soft. Run through the food mill and stir in the butter and cinnamon.

Can Ina Garten make ANYTHING that doesn't call for butter?
:)

I am going to try this recipe (sans butter) this weekend because I was planning on making applesauce. I will also probably halve the sugar, or leave out all together. One other change I will make is to not use Granny Smith apples. I think they are one of the worst apples for applesauce. Great for pies, not applesauce. They seem to loose their flavor when cooked that way. My all time favorite apple for applesauce is Golden Delicious. NOT the red ones, they are bad. I also like Empire. I have a bunch of macs so I'm going to mix macs with golden delicious. I like the idea of adding orange juice, that's a new twist for me. I always add lemon juice though. I can up applesauce in 1/2 pint jars. That's the size I need for single me who doesn't eat much sweet stuff. The other sizes go bad on me in the fridge.

I could put it up in gallon sized jars the way my kids go through it. Apples don't stay around long enough to make applesauce with so usually, I just buy it.
MIL does can some every year, so I get a few jars homemade that way. The kids and I prefer the smooth kind.
Lisa

ngraham, I'm not surprised that Cook's Illustrated disagrees with me on the apples. They and I disagree on nearly everything!

Annie

I am glad to see that it freezes well because I bought the ingredients exactly as typed and when I got them home I thought "wow, that's a lot of apples". When I looked up the recipe again I saw that it makes 2 1/2 quarts. Now that's a lot of applesauce. I picked up granny smith and gala. I don't have a food mill so I will just try this recipe as is the first time around. I hope it's good.

Funny thing is, I don't even like applesauce! I am making it because my Mom likes applesauce with loin of pork. I figured if I made it I could adjust it to my tastes. It will be funny if I hate real applesauce too.

Annie, I was surprised that multi-type apples didn't work well for them :) Perhaps that is a matter of taste too. I gave up trying TV recipes a long time ago-Martha Stewart's stuff never worked well for me, & lots of others I've tried. I started lurking here a couple of years ago & tried some of the recipes & have been pleased with almost all. I did give in & tried a few CI recipes, they suckered me in talking about their all their tests. So far though, the recipes I've tried have been really good.

Recipe was a success. I did modify it by using only one orange, a tangelo actually. After I juiced it I added that same amount of water so it wouldn't have a strong orange flavor. I pulled it out after one hour and one batch of apples was done but the other type wasn't soft enough to whisk. I put it back in for 15 minutes. We decided it needed some sugar for our tastes and man is that stuff delicious. We were eating it straight out of the pot. It turns out I like applesauce after all. I can't wait for the pork roast to be done.

Looks fantastic! Those who "pooh pooh" applesauce just haven't tried making it fresh themselves. I think I could eat it everyday and not get tired of it. It's good for breakfast too!

Teresa

Oh my God! Killer with the pork. You should have seen my Mom's face. She has never had homemade before but she always has those little snack packs in the fridge. She couldn't stop raving about how awesome it was and how you could actually taste a cinnamon flavor. I'll be having it for breakfast tomorrow. Yummo!

joan, if you have enough left, it's pretty darned good on pancakes. Dad loved it on pancakes, way better than syrup.

Annie

Joan I just finished canning up a batch of this applesauce. Delicious and a bit different than my usual recipe which I just wing. I have never added allspice or orange before. Actually I just sort of copied the theme of this recipe--I used white sugar, only 1/4 cup, orange and lemon juice not zest, less of the spices but the same ratio, and no butter. Still yum! Thanks again for posting!