crockpot applesauce

Yummy note: This fall, we ended up going apple picking a couple of times cause it was so fun. We went to some orchards in Michigan and Illinois. We got some delicious honeycrisp, gala, red delicious, and or course, who can forget the macintosh apples. I think we got a few other miscellaneous kinds too that the kids happened to pick up from a random tree or two from the orchards, too! So what to do with all those apples, well we made our share of apple crisp, apple pie, and now it's time to make one of my favorites with the leftover apples, applesauce! This is a pretty simple and easy recipe, really you just set the crockpot and forget about it for awhile to make some flavorful homemade applesauce! I like to double this recipe often to fill my crockpot full, so that I have a small package or so to put in my freezer for later.

Crockpot Applesauce

Ingredients:
4 medium apples, (the cooking variety of apples work best) peeled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup water to 1/2 cup water (may want to add more water later in the cooking process if you want a smoother or thinner applesauce)
1/4 cup brown sugar or 3-4 tbps granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
*if you don't have these spices on hand, I've also substituted those b using the pumpkin pie spices, that has a combination of several nice spices to use.

Directions:
Peel, core, and cut apples into fourths or smaller pieces if you'd like. Stir all ingredients (apples, water, sugar, and spices) above in a large crockpot. Cover and set slow cooker to 1 hour and 30 minutes on high. At this point, stir the apples and check on their consistency. At this point, if you think you need more water, add it in, or else you can wait more towards the end if you desire. After stirring apples and breaking them up a bit with a fork or masher, continue cooking them on high for another 30 minutes to an hour, depending on what type of apples you used. Depending on the apple variety, some cook up faster and softer than others, so be sure to keep that in mind. After apples have cooked for about 2 hours, mash and stir until consistency of the applesauce you like. I kept some of the applesauce on the chunkier side, while another batch, I pureed more in a blender to make it really smooth. Enjoy!!