Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spiced Applesauce
(Plus we've partnered with Marisa on a $100+ canning gear giveaway as part of the October Unprocessed challenge happening with our friends at Eating Rules. You can enter the giveaway below.)
Marisa McClellan is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated farmers market shopper who lives in Philadelphia. She is the author of the popular books Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round and Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces. Many follow her blog and are treated to her best tricks of the trade and amazing recipes at foodinjars.com.
Marisa finds applesauce to be one of her most-used pantry items. She uses it to lend moisture to baked goods, stirs it into pots of oatmeal to give bulk and get a serving of fruit into the meal, and she eats it for lunch with a scoop of cottage cheese. And of course, when Hanukkah rolls around, she is requested to bring a specialty jar or two for topping the latkes.
Unsweetened Pumpkin Pie Spiced Applesauce
Serves/Yield: 5 pints
Ingredients
- 6 pounds apples
- ½ cup water
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- Juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- 1. Chop the apples into eighths and heap them into a large, non-reactive pot with the water and cover. Set the pot on the stove over medium-high heat and bring it to a low simmer. Let the apples cook for approximately 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is soft enough to crush with the back of a wooden spoon.
- 2. Prepare a boiling water bath canner and enough jars to hold ten cups of sauce (I used two liter sized Weck jars and one half liter jar, but a similar combination of pints and quarts would also work).
- 3. Fit your food mill with a medium-sized screen and position it over a large mixing bowl. Work the cooked apples through the food mill until all the sauce is in the bowl and all you have left in the top of the food mill are dry skins and seeds.
- 4. Return the applesauce to the pot in which you first cooked it and place it over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, and lemon juice. Taste the sauce.
- 5. Spoon the applesauce into the prepared jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Use a chopstick to ease out any trapped air pockets and add more sauce to return the headspace to the proper levels, if necessary. Wipe the rims, apply the seals, lids, and clips (or lids and rings, if you’re not using Weck jars), and process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes (if you live above 1,000 feet in elevation, adjust your processing time accordingly).
- 6. When time is up, slide canning pot off the heat and remove the lid. Let the jars cool slowly in the pot for ten minutes. When the cooling time is up, remove the jars with a jar lifter from the canner and place them on a folded kitchen towel to cool.
- 7. When the jars are cool enough to handle, test the jars to ensure they’ve sealed properly. Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to a year. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and eaten within two weeks.
GIVEAWAY! One winner will win the following gear for canning your own homemade applesauce. The giveaway includes:
Enter the giveaway directly below:
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