The apple tree was very productive this year. It’s a very young tree but it yielded seven pounds of healthy deliciousness. The apple sauce I made a week ago has been living in the freezer because I wanted to wait posting until I had at least a couple of dishes containing this wonderful fall gift. I also had to wait until grocery-shopping day to get what I wanted. One of my absolut favorite dishes this time of year is quite polarizing. Some will think “eeew!” and others will think “yummy!” There doesn’t seem to be anything in between.

Blood sausage.. To me it’s lovely dish. When fried there’s a wonderful fragrance in the whole house. This is what Christmas (also) smells like. Sometimes I’ll pour light syrup over and sometimes I’ll go for the apple sauce. This is why I want my apple sauce to be a little thicker. I want it to make a nice hill that stays there. Then a sprinkle of sugar mixed with ground cinnamon and it’s time to enjoy the contrast between cold and warm, between sweet and light tartness. It’s really good! 😋

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Another use is “as is”. Pour milk over and enjoy. It’s a dessert but can also be used as an afternoon treat, baked into puff pastry, in trifles or even as breakfast if you like. Again; the consistency is important to me. I hate when it gets runny and mixes with the milk. And I love when it’s chunky. Then it’s not the same all the way through and there’s something to chew on. There are many ways to use apple sauce. These are just my favorites 😊

The recipe is easy. This is what I do:

Prep. time: 30 min (depending on how fast you can peel)
Cook time: approx. 20 min

Ingredients:
3,5 kg / 7 pounds of apples (the tree decided that)
50 g vanilla sugar (no vanilla paste/extract of decent quality here)
300 g sugar
(The amount of sugar can vary depending of what kind of apples you’re using, how ripe they are and how sweet you like things. You’ll have to wing it when you get to that point. Start out by adding half the sugar and taste if you think it’s enough = add to taste)

1. Peel and deseed the apples, cut them into quarters. Put them in a big container with water so they don’t get brown while you’re working.
2. Rinse the apple quarters. Scoop them out of the water with your hands, don’t shake them but swiftly transfer them directly into a big pot. Only the water that clings to the apples goes in the pot. This is important. This way you don’t need starch. In this portion there was about 1 dl / 3.3 oz of water in total.
3. Put the pot on the stove, put a lid on and bring the apples to a boil on high heat. When you can hear them sizzle and hiss, reduce the heat to low. You want them to simmer, not crazy volcano-boil. Stir occasionally.
4. Cook for 15-20 min until tender but not completely mashed. If you don’t want any chunks, keep cooking until the apples become mash or use an immersion blender. Turn off the heat. Add vanilla sugar and half the sugar. Mix it well. The sugar will make it a little thinner, but that’s fine. Taste and add more sugar if you like. (If it gets a bit too thin, return it to the stove and let it simmer some more to until you’re happy with it. The fancy word for this is “reduction” = liquid evaporates = thicker. Also = intensifying flavor)

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Let it cool for 15-30 minutes while you take a well earned brake. Then put the apple sauce in boxes and let it live in your freezer until you need it.
Thaws out in the fridge, just stir it around and it’s ready to use.

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