Friday Food Craft

Extra Chunky Apple Sauce

                                         You will need:

5 medium to large apples, any variety (I typically use at least 3 varieties of apples. For this apple sauce I used Granny Smith, Gala and Pink Lady)

2-4 Tbsp. apple cider or apple juice (you can use water, but I like to always add more flavor and depth)

The juice from one clementine (you may substitute lemon, lime or any other citrus type fruit. I like fresh juice and clementine's are what I had in the fridge)

2 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla flavoring

To make your apple sauce, first peel and core your apples, then dice them up. I like my apple sauce extra chunky so I am not very concerned with the pieces being a uniform shape, some can be small, some can be much larger.

Place your apples in a pan. I use a small stock pot, about 5 quarts, as I like a large surface area to evenly distribute the apples over the heat. Add in all of the juices and flavorings and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes (you may need less time if you cut smaller pieces of apple). After 15 minutes they should be fairly soft, at this point I use a potato masher and mash up the apples a bit to make more of a sauce. I then cook the sauce an additional 5-10 minutes, adding extra apple cider if necessary.

I like to serve this warm, and often times some vanilla ice cream manages to hop out of nowhere and perch itself on top. I really don't know how this happens, but it is too good for me to complain.

I've also been known to scoop a bit of apple sauce onto pork chops at dinner time.