Applesauce

I love canning, I make jam as frequently as I can, my second favorite thing to can is Applesauce.

This is what you need:
Apples
Water
Sugar (optional)
Cinnamon or other spices (if desired)

These are the apples I used, they are Stayman, a type of Winesap. I've used Red Delicious, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, you can really use any apple, if you use tart apples you will want to add some sugar. I used these because that's what they had at the local farmer's market and they were in the discount section because of some bruising (doesn't matter when you are making applesauce). You will need about 3 pounds of apples per quart of applesauce. I wound up making 2 batches totalling 7 pints (3.5 quarts) out of about 9 pounds of apples.
You need to clean, quarter and core your apples, you can peel them if you want, especially if you don't have a good sieve or food mill.

Put apple quarters and just enough water to make sure the apples don't stick (with 5 pounds of apples, I used about 1 cup of water). Cook apples until they are soft (you need to be able to mash them or run them through a sieve).Once they are soft, you run the apples through a food mill, sieve or mash them. You can put them in a food processor and pulse them to sauce but it will break down the pulp more.This is the pulp after being run through the food mill. Once you have apple pulp, return to sauce pot, bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes, constantly stirring. This is where you would add sugar, I usually taste the apples and if they taste a little tart, I add some sugar. I added 1/2 cup of sugar for 3-4 pints.Once the applesauce has boiled for 5 minutes, put in clean, heated canning jars, release air bubbles, put on lids and rings, and process in hot water canner (pot with boiling water) for 20 minutes. When you are done, you have yummy applesauce. As the jars cool they will ping, that is the wonderful sound of the jars sealing. Verdict: Yummy! I know it looks like I only made 3 1/2 pints, but I filled a bowl for my son before I canned the sauce and I made a second batch today in the crockpot. I got that recipe from The Crockpot Lady's blog.