This easy, two-part recipe for applesauce is one of my favorites for Fall. Apples are incredibly abundant in the Fall and can be collected at a Pick-Your-Own, a local farmer's market, or, if you're lucky, your own backyard tree.

In fact, I used this recipe, minus the sugar and cinnamon, to make a large batch of applesauce/homemade baby food for the little one and froze it into ice cubes.

You can make your applesauce following the same recipe in a saucepan on the stove if you're short on time. However using the crockpot is much easier and you don't have to worry about watching it to make sure it doesn't burn. You'll also make your house smell amazing! Win-win!

Make Your Applesauce

The first step of this process is to make your applesauce.

Ingredients

*6 lbs apples
*1 cinnamon stick or ground cinnamon to taste
*1.5-2 cups water
*1/2 cup sugar or honey (optional)
*2 Tbsp lemon juice (for canning)

Directions

1. Peel, core, and roughly chop your apples.
2. Throw ingredients into a saucepan or crockpot.
3. For saucepan cooking, simmer until apple chunks simply fall apart. Blend and add back to saucepan for another 10-15 minutes.
4. For crockpot cooking, cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5 hours.

Can Your Applesauce

1. Add your lemon juice to your applesauce.
2. Sterilize your jars according to your normal practice.
3. Add your applesauce to your jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace and removing any bubbles. (This recipe will fill roughly 4 pint jars.)
4. Secure lids.
5. Process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

For more great Fall-time Apple recipes, check out Herbal Academy's Harvest Time Apple Recipes.