Apples, Apples, Apples!

Fall is my favorite season. My reasons include: my birthday is during the fall, I love halloween, I love wearing cozy scarfs and gloves, apple cider is one of the best beverages in the world, pumpkin patches are fun for people of all ages, and apples are plentiful.

 

 

There is a lovely produce stand in Newberg that I have been shopping at since I was a freshman in college. It is always a sad day for me when they close up for the winter (and a wonderful day when they re-open).

This fall I have done a lot of shopping at Ray's Produce, but what i have bought more than anything so far is apples. Fuji, gala, golden delicious, pink lady, jonathan, honeycrisp...apples, apples apples!



First I dehydrated some apples. I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar over apple rings and slices and cooked them for hours in my new food dehydrator (that I scored at a garage sale for $5!).

Secondly, I did something I have always wanted to do: I made applesauce! It ended up being so easy that I wondered why I hadn't made any sooner!

 

I decided not to can any of it and instead made a relatively small batch and froze some. (While making this I can across the suggestion to try some warm homemade applesauce with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top...oh my! was it good!)

With the majority of the applesauce I made apple butter. If you have not had apple butter you need to try some very soon! It resembles jam and tastes like fall! Contrary to the name, there is no butter in apple butter at all. It is just a cooked and reduced mixture of applesauce, spices and sugar.

I hope this post has inspired you to go out and buy or pick some apples and make something wonderful out of them!

Applesauce

Adapted from Simply Recipes

• 7 to 8 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good sweet cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 8 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler
• Juice of two lemons, about 6 Tbsp
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/2 cup of white sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

Apple Butter

• 6 cups applesauce 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Put all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 8-14 hours. Freezes very well.

* Here is a site with some good information about apple butter