Homemade Applesauce

The smell of apples roasting in the oven has to be one of my favorites. I'm not even a huge fan of cooked apples, though I will eat them. It's like coffee...smells much better than it tastes to me (no offense you coffee lovers out there). However, the boys love applesauce in any form and Landon's preschool curriculum was covering all things autumn and today was to be spent on apples. So, we decided to make some homemade applesauce. I found a recipe, well really a method, for roasted applesauce online and it sounded like a good idea to me...for taste and nutrition (no boiling or nuking those nutrients away). It was so easy and is so good with a little caramelly note to it from the roasting and some brown sugar. I'm a homemade applesauce convert, although I'll still have to buy that blueberry kind.

Landon had a blast. I let him dump the ingredients and then mash the apples up. I had to steal his spoon away or he would have eaten half the bowl.


The finished product. Delicious. Would even be good warm with ice cream. The proportions listed below really don't make a lot, so you may want to double or even triple the amounts. I tweaked the spices and stuff enough to make it my own...feel free to play. Enjoy!

Roasted Applesauce
4 large apples (peeled, cored, and chopped)
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tea vanilla
3/4 tea cinnamon
1/8 tea nutmeg (fresh ground if you've got it)



Preheat oven to 400.
Toss everything together and place in a 9 x 13 inch pan (for this single recipe...you could use two or a large rimmed baking sheet for larger batches).
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 50 minutes or until apples are very soft and starting to brown. (It will vary depending on the type of apples you use. I left them in 50 minutes for a mix of honeycrisp and golden delicious).
Mash apples.