Apple Sauce. So simple. So delicious. It seems almost like kid stuff. I know I ate a ton as a kid, but then again, I also ate a ton of apple sauce in my dorm room at college. Last summer I made batch after batch of apple sauce from the tree in my backyard. This year, instead of harvesting the buckets and buckets that I did last year, I think there were about half a dozen apples on my tree and I didn’t get to eat any of them before the squirrels got to them. I’ve been told that apple trees cycle through years of abundance and years of very little, but it was still a bummer. But luckily, living here in Washington, there is certainly no shortage of apples. I hit up my local farmer’s market and bought a five pound bag of fresh picked apples and went to funky town. Or, I made apple sauce with them. You know what I mean. But unlike last year, I canned the sauce so that I could keep it in my pantry all winter. Last year, I froze small portions of the apple sauce, which worked just fine, but was less than perfectly convenient. I would have to set some of the little jars in the fridge the night before I wanted to eat them to thaw out, and who thinks a day ahead about if they’ll want apple sauce? Now I’ll just have to grab it off the shelf and dig in! Just like the little cups of Mott’s you can buy at the grocery store, but when you make your own, you can control how much sugar you want (and you can even add some booze!). When you are making your apple sauces, I encourage you to experiment. I told you last week about a canning class I went to. When we were there, we made two kinds of apple sauce. One had lots of apple brandy in it. It was delicious and my favorite. But, we also made another kind. One with sage and rosemary cooked in with the apples. The herbs were chopped very finely and they added a delicious, fresh, herbal flavor to the apples. I wouldn’t have thought of putting fresh herbs in my apple sauce, but it was a real treat.

You will find my original recipe for apple sauce here. Make the sauce according to those directions and then can them like this:

1.) Prepare boiling water canner, or large stock pot with a strainer that will keep the jars off of the bottom of the pan. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) When the apple sauce is ready, remove jars from hot water and set somewhere clean. Allow to dry. Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rim clean. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
3.) Put jars in a simmering water for 20 minutes. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Should keep for one year in your pantry. Store canned goods out of direct sunlight. Enjoy!

Photographs by Jessica Yager