How to Make Applesauce with KitchenAid® Attachments
Today’s post is sponsored by KitchenAid as they provided me with a stand mixer and several attachments, so I can teach you a very simple way how to make applesauce.
Delicious, smooth, warm applesauce.
This time of year of canning and preserving always feels right. It’s like birthing a baby, in a way, with the fruits of our labor coming to fruition in the growing season canning, preserving, and eating from the land. Even though we have a city lot with 14 raised beds, we also head up the street to several accessible farms, to our local Harry & David, and to the Farmer’s Market to buy organic goods.
Every year our dear friends, who live a few miles from us, provide us with apples.
And every year we make applesauce. Often it involves the family, or one of my kids helping me. It’s really a quick process!
It’s one of the easiest ways to harvest and enjoy apples in the winter months ahead. And what I love is that everyone can get in on the canning process, and YES, you really do NOT have to peel or core the apples!
Did you hear this, folks? Cook them down with skins, cores, stems, and all.
Attach the Fruit Strainer/Food Grinder attachments to your KitchenAid stand mixer. (The links to what you will need are at the bottom of this post.)
Make sure there is one LARGE bowl ready to receive the pressed applesauce, and one smaller bowl ready to receive the residue from the apples.
How to Make Applesauce:
Wash the apples. I usually put them into my deep kitchen sink, add cold water, and let them soak.
Cut the apples. Taking the cut apples from the sink, slice into quarters. LEAVE SKINS AND STEMS ON. Place in a big pot.
Cook the apples. Fill the pot as high as you can. Add about 1/2 cup of water. Cook the apples down, which means you cook them until they are soft and tender.
Press the apples. Ladle the apples into the top of the fruit strainer on the KitchenAid stand mixer. Push the apples through.
How it works. The Fruit Vegetable Strainer/Food Grinder does 2 things. It separates out the stems, seeds, and skins of the apple into one bowl, and the applesauce into the other bowl.
Fill the jars. Fill the sterilized canning jars with applesauce and process in a hot water canner for 25 minutes.
Enjoy it hot. There’s nothing better than a warm bowl of applesauce with fresh whipped cream.
The applesauce process is amazingly quick and efficient, and one of the things I love to can each year.
There are different ways to add flavor to the applesauce, too, if you like to can. (Very top photo: Home canned applesauce and cherries.)
You can add sugar (but I don’t), cinnamon, even melted red hot candies! These add a cinnamon flavor, and also quite a bit of sugar to each jar, but in the long run, the “pink” applesauce is what kids love the most!
You can eat it fresh, or if you have an abundance like I usually do, follow the canning process (go to Ball.com for any canning questions.)
Thank you KitchenAid for sponsoring this post today. If you have any questions about the process of making applesauce, leave me a question and I’ll try to answer it for you.
Our family has been enjoying this scrumptious treat for years and am thrilled to share the process with you today!
Oh, and an empty pot is a good sign of happy tummies in the household!
Do you have any secrets for making home-canned applesauce?
Here are the attachments you will need:
KitchenAid® Fruit/Vegetable Strainer Set
KitchenAid® Food Grinder
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
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Love making homemade applesauce with mom. Her KitchenAid 5Qt mixer uses a strainer pan that sits on top of the bowl and a wooden push paddle that mounts to the mixer , where the doe hook would go.
She likes this attachment but it has been discontinued we think .
Sure wish I could find out where this went?
I am getting 3 times more waste than sauce…what am I doing wrong?!
I would like to make the applesauce a bit chunkier than the strainer does. My sauce seems to be to “soupie”. Do you have a suggestion to help make it thicker?
Thanks
Dorothy
Mash up some cooked apples and mix in with what you have. I am thinking you added to much water to start with. You do not need much! A giant pot, maybe 1/2 cup of water.
Thank you so much! When you are cooking down. your apples, do you need to continue stirring them and how high of a temperature do you have them cooking at? Thanks!
Have you ever tried making apple jelly with skins and cores??
I have a kitchen aid but no attachments. Do I need both attachments or just one? I love this idea, but feel like the post refers to a single attachment but links to two at the bottom. Your help is greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!
Did this today….wow…easiest way I’ve ever made applesauce and I little waste! Thanks!!
Pretty much personal preference – it depends how tart you like it. Any “cooking apple” will work well – Gravensteins are great, Granny Smith if you like it really tart, Jonagolds…or whatever you have handy, they’re all tasty.
So I got the attachment and was thrilled with the results except that when I removed the processed jars, applesauce began to leak out the top of my jars. I’m a newbie canner but I’m pretty sure that shouldn’t have happened. Any ideas what I might have done wrong? Thanks.
LOVE your blog!
Lori, yes … you filled the jars to full. You need to leave at least 3/4 – 1″ room at the top before putting on the lid/ring!
Are there certain varieties of apples that should be used for applesauce, or is it just personal preference?
Natalie, Gravenstein are probably my favorite for canning, but for just making “fresh” applesauce, you can use any kind of apple! I’ll be using Golden Delicious … it’s delicious warm with whipped cream on top!
I made homemade applesauce this morning. While I don’t have a Kitchenaid attachment, I have a machine that is very similar to the attachment. I usually enlist some help but ended up making the sauce by myself. I used Jonathan apples which we picked a week ago and so our sauce is pink in color instead of the yellow. Probably the biggest difference from yours, Sandy, is that I put mine in freezer bags and freeze the sauce. That’s quick and easy and when I serve it, I don’t quite thaw it all the way and those little bits of frozen in there is delish. But there’s nothing like homemade applesauce is there?
No peeling or coring?! What a time saver!! We love to make applesauce each fall, it’s a family affair. The girls and I are going apple picking this evening, can’t wait!
love apple sauce and this method is so much easier,thanks for sharing :-)
Who knew that making applesauce would be this easy?!
Thank you very much, because your writing has provided a way out that is needed by everyone. And must be applied in daily life lived by everyone.
I want this attachment! I use a strainer that has a turn handle that mashes it all up. Its a work out for the arms but worth it.
I totally want this attachment!
How often do you need to remove and clean the skins/core residue? I have always used a culinary ‘china cap’ and pestle…kinda old school. Cleaning the skins residue is the most annoying part. Wonder how much time this attachment really saves?
deb meyers
Deb, from the attachment? Never! You finish the entire job, no matter how many apples, and then clean x1 at the very end. Email me if you want more info … there’s nothing annoying about this process! :)
Thanks for this post. I didn’t know KA had an attachment that made applesauce so easy. No peeling and coring, yeah!
I had no idea that the attachment separates the stems and the cores! Brilliant! My kiddos love homemade applesauce! Wonderful tips, Sandy!
YUM! I’ve been making quick applesauce in my vitamix and simply freezing it. I just core the apples, throw them in with just a bit of water and some cinnamon, blend till smooth, then put in a freezer container. You could process it, but I wanted to keep it “raw”
That looks so good! Thanks for the hard work to show us how it’s done!
I’m seriously thinking I need that attachment for my Kitchen Aid. That just looks too easy. I love homemade applesauce. YUM!
Now, this is the way to make applesauce! Easy peasy. I must get these KitchenAid attachments, soon. Thanks for sharing, m’lady!