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This week I have been canning homemade applesauce. I have a sweet neighbor who has an apple tree and he gives me lots of apples from his tree for FREE, so I developed this delicious recipe. Guess what? I’m gonna share it with you!
I love being able to build my food storage and having it not cost anything! Last year I used the apples he gave to me to can some easy apple pie filling, so this year I decided to make homemade applesauce.
I know applesauce is a yummy treat, but did you also know that you can use applesauce in place of oil when you bake cookies and cakes? You can! Applesauce is valuable stuff to have in your food storage!
Homemade Applesauce Made in the Pressure Cooker
So far this year my neighbor has given me two full crates of apples! (One crate had over 200 apples!)
I don’t want those babies to go bad, so I got to work right away. You won’t believe how easy making homemade applesauce in your pressure cooker is!
How to Make Homemade Applesauce in Your Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot
First, you need to peel and slice your apples.
I used 40 small to medium-size apples per batch. I was VERY glad I had an apple peeler/slicer/corer on hand. It made that process fairly quick!
Once the apples are all peeled and sliced, put them in the pressure cooker pot.
Add 1/3 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker. Make sure the vent is closed. On the manual setting, cook at high pressure for 7 minutes.
When the seven minutes is up, wait for the pressure to release completely. After all of the pressure has released completely from your pressure cooker, open the lid and it will look something like this…
The apples are very soft at this point, so you can use a potato masher (that’s what I use) or an immersion blender to blend it. Now you have homemade applesauce!
How to Water Bath Can Homemade Applesauce
I made four batches of this recipe in my pressure cooker. I had a lot of applesauce, so I canned it for food storage. I put the four batches in a large pot, heated it, then canned it.
Supplies you need to can homemade applesauce:
6 quart-sized jars with lids and screw-on caps (I recommend wide-mouth jars, but either type will work)
Hot water bath canner with jar tray
Jar lifter (so you don’t burn your fingers or drop a hot jar!)
A knife
A large spoon
A ladle for scooping the apple pie filling into the jars
A funnel
A cutting board
Magnet to pick up lids (optional)
An apple slicer/peeler (you can slice/peel them with a knife and peeler, but it is more work!)
First, load the jars and screw-on caps in the dishwasher. The jars will need to be HOT when the hot applesauce is put in them, so depending on how long of a cycle your dishwasher has, you will want to figure out the timing and plan accordingly. (The jars should be in the rinse or dry cycle when you are ready to put the hot applesauce in them, that way they are ready and will be hot right when you need them!)
Cover a hot water bath pot filled with water roughly 2/3 of the way. When you turn the heat on high for the hot water bath pot you should also start your dishwasher cycle (with jars and lids inside). The water should cover the jars once you sink them, but the pot should not be so full that the water overflows onto your stove when you put the jars in. If needed, you can use a glass mug to CAREFULLY remove some of the excess water.
When the water in the hot water bath is starting to get hot, you should heat the canning lids in boiling water to prep them. The lids need to be hot when you seal the canning jars to ensure that you get a tight seal to avoid foodborne illness.
Hopefully, if you have timed everything well, by the time the applesauce is ready, your jars are hot and your lids are hot. THIS IS IMPORTANT! If the lids and jars are not hot, get them hot before you proceed.
Be sure the applesauce is also hot because putting cold fruit in a hot jar will cause the jar to break. Don’t cheat on this…trust me! You have been warned!
One at a time, remove hot jar from dishwasher, place funnel in top of the jar.
Using ladle fill with the hot applesauce, but leave about 1/2 – 1 inch of space at the top (because it will expand). Using your lid magnet, remove a lid from the boiling water. Carefully place it on the jar.
Wipe the bottleneck and top of lid dry with a towel and then screw on the cap. You may not need to use all six jars. That is okay.
It’s always better to have too many jars hot and ready, rather than too few. If you have too few there is no safe way to heat another jar fast and if the jars are not hot when placed in the hot water canner they will break! I did that once!
Using your jar lifter, place the hot jars of hot applesauce into the water bath rack (the water in your water bath should be boiling). Repeat until all of the applesauce has been jarred.
Sink the jars in the boiling water bath and replace the lid. Keep the jars at a rolling boil with the lid on the water bath for 20 minutes (doing this is called processing).
Turn off the heat.
When you use the jar lifting tray to lift them out of the water bath, use hot pads.
Leave the jars in the tray-lifted position to cool before you remove them with the jar lifter. Lift them out of the water bath with the jar lifter and set them on a towel on the counter to dry.
Once the jars are dry and cool, use a sharpie to label the lid with the date and “applesauce”. Now it’s ready to go in your food storage! Look at you! You’re becoming more self-reliant! Yay!
*Remember to make sure the bottles, lids, AND the applesauce are all hot at the same time. Cold jars in hot water bath=broken bottles!
(When you are finished canning the homemade applesauce, check out some other ideas for preserving apples in my How to Preserve Apples for Food Storage post!)
Notes
Canning supplies that you will need (in case you have never canned before, there are links in the post to show you what I am taking about!):
6 quart-sized jars with lids and screw-on caps (I recommend wide-mouth jars, but either type will work)
Hot water bath canner with jar tray
Jar lifter (so you don’t burn your fingers or drop a hot jar!)
A knife
A large spoon
A ladle for scooping the apple pie filling into the jars
A funnel
A cutting board
Magnet to pick up lids (optional) (again so you don’t burn your fingers getting them out of boiling water)
An apple slicer/peeler (you can slice/peel them yourself if you want…I don’t!)
You can also check out these other great food preservation tips:
Dehydrating Apples with Cinnamon and Sugar
Preserving Strawberries with a Dehydrator
Canning Homemade Cinnamon Applesauce
After you are finished, don’t forget to come follow us on Facebook!
How to Make Homemade Applesauce in the Pressure Cooker
You won't believe how easy it is to make homemade applesauce in your pressure cooker or instant pot! I've got step-by-step directions for you! If you want to water bath can the applesauce when you are done making it, I've got your back for that, too!
Ingredients
- 40 medium size apples
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- First, you need to peel and slice your apples. I used 40 small to medium-size apples per batch. I was VERY glad I had an apple peeler/slicer/corer on hand. It made that process fairly quick.
- Once the apples are all peeled and sliced, put them in the pressure cooker pot.
- Add 1/3 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar.
- Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker.
- Make sure the vent is closed.
- On the manual setting, cook at high pressure for 7 minutes.
- When the seven minutes is up, wait for the pressure to release completely.
- After all of the pressure has released completely from your pressure cooker, open the lid.
- The apples are very soft at this point, so you can use a potato masher (that’s what I use) or an immersion blender to blend it. Now you have homemade applesauce!
Notes
Water bath can the applesauce for your food storage. It's a great way to boost your emergency preparedness! Check out my canning posts!
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See ya next time!
Deb
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