Home Cooked Apple Sauce for Fall
Adapted from Indulge, Fall 2010, by Carrie Minns

One of my favorite places to turn for food inspiration is a little "free-of-charge" magazine put out quarterly by Zupan's Markets here in Portland, called Indulge. They always highlight seasonal food. There is always a lengthy article penned by Portland's own, Sara Perry, and complete with 3 or 4 of her recipes. I believe I turned down the corner of almost every page of this quarter's issue. One recipe, obviously, that caught my eye was a simple one for apple sauce. As I mentioned above, I used a mix of the apples I had purchased at the farmer's market, Honeycrisp and Reine des Reinettes, but you could use a mix of any apples you could find that are recommended for baking. Also, the amount of cinnamon called for does give this recipe a definite cinnamon flavor which my family loved but you could reduce the amount if you'd prefer just a hint. I do suggest you make a double batch of this. My brood inhaled this in one fell swoop and I had to make a second batch of it so I would have something to photograph...just for you.

Ingredients:

• 10 medium apples - Honeycrisp, McIntosh or other baking apples
• 3/4 c water
• 3 tbsp loosely packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• a pinch of Kosher salt

Directions:

• Start by peeling, coring and slicing your apples.
• I recently acquired a Victorio Apple Peeler which is a slick little contraption that makes this step of the recipe quite pleasurable. (My 11-year old is singing my praises since it also peels potatoes and he's always in charge of the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving.) Now, if you don't happen to have a handy dandy apple peeler, you can always get out a little paring knife, turn on some smooth music and go about it by hand. However you do it, make sure that once the apples are peeled, cored and sliced that you also cut them up into bite-sized chunks.
• Then, put them in a stock pot over medium-low heat along with your water, brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and salt.
• Over low heat, simmer the apples for 30-40 minutes, or until the apples are soft.
• At this point taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
• Now, my brood does not like chunky apple sauce so next, I took out my handy-dandy hand held blender and pureed my sauce into a smoother concoction. You may be okay with chunks and can forego this step.
• Warm or cold, it's scrumptious. Enjoy.

PS: I haven't tried this because I never have any left but apparently, this recipe freezes well.