Applesauce is so easy to make. And amazingly delicious.
Core an apple. Peel (I use a potato peeler). Slice, cut slices into pieces. Not too much water – not even covering the pieces. Boil till mushy enough (to taste). Drain. Mash. Done!
So versatile, too.
My absolute favorite so far is to steam butternut squash, and then mash it with apples in a 3:2 ratio (more squash). Really good just like that, but spectacular if you add spectacularly unhealthy amounts of butter, some cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar.
This was surprisingly good – boil the apples with prune juice, and then add a bit more prune juice when mashing. Really good for managing constipation (fiber + prune magic). And it just tastes like mulled apples.
Plain with a kick – boil with a stick of cinnamon and a few cloves. The standard method if I just want to eat it. Oh, and eat it warm. MMMMMMM And it makes the house smell delicious.
I haven’t tried it with cranberries yet, but that is coming soon.
Other suggestions?
Hmmm
It wouldn’t take much more sweetening and spice to make it applebutter.
Spices to try… hmmmm of course you could find a recipe for applebutter. Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger…. pumpkin pie spice which is just a mixture of those. I think vanilla would be good.
They are always pairing it with raisins. If prunes worked, raisins might. Maybe figs? dates?
What about nuts? I can imagine walnuts, pecans, maybe almonds.
Sweeten with maple syrup? Real maple syrup has some good things I think… more than sugar at any rate. I have some real maple syrup (I have managed to acquire 3 containers) if you would like one next time you are here or we are there. I have been using it a little. Sadly I have been on a Cheerio binge and Cheerios are so good sweetened with just a little maple syrup.
Has Eleanor decided she likes applesauce, your applesauce at least?
I had not thought of raisins. That has potential. I don’t have any dates or figs – wonder if I could find them in bulk somewhere so I could get one date; one fig. I did get some cranberries yesterday so I could try them.
We have maple syrup – I’ll try using that for a sweetener. I have never thought of using that on cheerios. Dry, I assume? I do alternate brown sugar and maple syrup as the sweetener for oatmeal or cream of wheat.
I have a spice blend from Penzey’s called Baking Spice which is kind of like pumpkin pie seasoning – I use either cinnamon or I use that blend. Vanilla is a good idea.
Nuts – interesting. Not sure the crowd here would go for that experiment, though. They don’t even like nuts in brownies.
Eleanor is still ambivalent, but is certainly more willing to try the applesauce we’re making. I think right now I’m the biggest fan of the new food.
Maple syrup stirred into the milk (lactose free in case that is why you assumed i meant dry) with Cheerios… and not much of it… just enough to give a hint of sweetness and a hint of maple. I think maple would be good in oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. I’ll have to try that. I have been eating my oatmeal with butter and cinnamon… sometimes with a sweetener, sometimes not. Depends on how good I am trying to be.
It is fun playing with new flavors…. Surprises me that Eleanor doesn’t care for applesauce.
Eleanor is getting silly about her preferences. Just Saturday she was turning her nose up at pancakes.
I’m being rather lazy about it – I’m not pushing her and am letting her continue to nurse as she wants. There might have been a few days where I considered making an issue of her food choices, but I really don’t have the energy for it. Would rather just let this go for a while than wear myself out over it. Am letting Joseph’s diet take the lead for all of us.