How to Make Applesauce in the CrockPot

Easy homemade slow cooker applesauce with none of the work. Add some cinnamon and spice and sugar if you want it. This is the perfect gluten-free, vegan, allergy-free, and paleo sweet snack!

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I learned how to make applesauce years ago, and I marveled at how easy it is. Now, I love to make applesauce, and the crockpot makes it especially easy.

You start it and then you walk away for some hours. I actually forgot about my applesauce this time, allowing it to cook all afternoon and overnight. When I remembered it the next day, it had gotten a little closer to apple butter than apple sauce, but it still tasted great.

Unless you let it cook wildly too long (like days), you don't have to worry about burning applesauce when you make it in the crockpot.

When making it on the stove top, you have to keep careful watch and stir often to prevent sticking and burning.

This day, I did a typical Tara thing and went overboard with the preparations for a homeschool lesson on apples. I was planning to do an apple taste test with Grace, and I found 15 different varieties of apples.

So I bought 15 different varieties of apples.

So my applesauce was made with 15 different apples, no 2 alike.

It came out with a really, really, really nice flavor, so I highly recommend that. Maybe you don't want to bother with 15 different kinds, but a variety of apples will lead to the best applesauce.

The clerk at the checkout might not appreciate your one-of-each method (some of my apples came from Wal-Mart where each and every apple had to be weight and rung up separately), but if you go to the farmer's market, they probably won't care as much.

Strite's Farm Market in Harrisburg was perfectly happy to sell me one of each apple, piled into a half-peck basket.

If you're going to use a lot of one variety of apple, my recommendation is the Honeycrisp which comes close to being God's perfect apple in every possible way. Just saying.

How to Make Applesauce in the Crockpot

I have a couple of notes to share before I get started with the recipe.

First, I have a 6-quart crockpot, and my raw apples completely filled it to the top. They cooked down by more than half, leaving me with a little less than 3 quarts of applesauce.

Second, homemade applesauce doesn't have the same consistency of store-bought applesauce. I think this is a good thing, but if you're not used to it, you may be surprised. If you want it to be really smooth (why would you?!), you can purée the applesauce or put it through a food grinder, food mill, or food processor. If you ruin your applesauce in that way, we can't be friends any more.

So don't invite me over for homemade pureed applesauce. I like mine to have some chunks.

Third, there will most likely be a thin liquid atop your applesauce. Leave the lid off of the crockpot if you want to get rid of that.

Fourth, here is my finished applesauce:

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Just after the apples soften, they are yellowish. If you continue to cook them (on purpose or by forgetting about them), the sauce turns brown.

There's very little difference in the flavor of yellow and of brown applesauce. The brown is maybe a little sweeter and a little thicker.

If you leave the sauce a long time, like most of a day, it will eventually turn into apple butter.

If you aren't familiar, apple butter is a sweet paste that you can spread on toast instead of jelly or mix in with cottage cheese. It is heavenly, so if you overcook your applesauce significantly, just skip the sugar and enjoy it as a condiment instead of a side dish.

While you're here, take a look at these other apple recipes:

• Stuffed Baked Apples (Gluten-Free)
• Ham and Rice with Apples - Leftover Ham Recipe
• Cracker Barrel Copycat Skillet Fried Apples
• My Favorite Apple Crisp Recipe
• Baked Apple Pecan Pancakes
• Apple Ring Pancakes

Recipe

How to Make Applesauce in the CrockPot

Easy homemade slow cooker applesauce with none of the work. Add some cinnamon and spice and sugar if you want it. This is the perfect gluten-free, vegan, allergy-free, and paleo sweet snack!

4.86 from 7 votes

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Servings 2 quarts

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 15 apples
• ½ cup sugar or artificial sweetener of your choice
• 1 tablespoons cinnamon (okay, I admit it. I have no clue how much I used as I just dumped and stirred and dumped and stirred. I imagine it was around a tablespoon, but do what I did and season it to your liking.)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice see above

Instructions

 

• Peel, core, and chop your apples. If you have an apple wedger, that works really well. Wedge the apples, then peel the sections. If you have an apple peeler/corer/slicer, use that. If you just have a knife, then cut the apples in half and half again. This is super easy, I promise.
  
• Put the lid on the crockpot, turn it on low, and walk away. In a 3-4 hours, come back and look at it. Stir the apples.
• Repeat, stirring every 3-4 hours until the apple wedges turn into applesauce.
  
• Taste your applesauce. If you want it to be a little sweeter, add ½ cup of sugar. (I usually do add a little sugar.) Next, add some cinnamon and a wee bit of pumpkin pie spice. I try to stick to a 3:1 ratio on those, but please, go with your tastebuds. Keep tasting and add spices until it's perfect.
  
• Let the applesauce cook another hour or so to blend the flavors. It's done and ready to eat.

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