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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Applesauce


I have found two things to be true with regard to shop-bought apple sauce

1) The good, natural, stuff is expensive
2) The cheap, preservative-laden stuff tastes of sugar and had the
texture of mush

I wanted to make my own but I did not have a recipe to hand. So I did what anyone would do - ask a former Army corporal, aged 75 years, what he put into his own version.

'Lemon and spices' he said. 'And boil it properly without too much water'. So I took Rodger's advice when I came to preparing an apple sauce made with a bag full of Julia's lovely Bramleys. I love it when friends give you freebies! This is such a good way to save money and eat healthily! These apples were still not quite ripe although were windfalls, so had that extra crispness and tang.

Ingredients
200g of Bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup of water
1/2 cup brown sugar tablespoons of brown sugar, to taste (add more if you like sweet sauce)
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of malt vinegar
1 teaspoon of mixed spices (cinnamon, mace, ginger, crushed cloves)
1/4 teaspoon of salt

How to
Clean the apple chunks. We do not like mushy food so left the chunks quite large, but you can dice or slice more thinly
Boil these in a pan with the water, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and salt until it reduces. It should look similar to chunky babyfood.
Immediately put the pan on a low heat, and stir in the spices for 1 minute.
Taste it. It should be quite tangy and not too salty or bitter. If you need to, add 1-2 tablespoons more of sugar and stir for a couple of minutes. 
We do not like sugary tasting sauces in our house but I appreciate that everyone's tastebuds are different.
When it suits your palate, remove from heat and let it cool.
Wait until it cools before putting into clean jars.

The finished product - in interesting jars!
I keep old jam jars for this purpose, as it saves money buying new ones. However I do relabel them with the date of manufacture on it. This helps me to work out how long it will keep in the fridge, which is approximately 3-4 weeks, and stops hungry visitors from mistaking it for jam (recipe to come soon).

So far we have used this with 'posh' bangers and mash (recipe for 'posh' mash can be found here) and as an accompaniment to my hubby's ham and cheese sandwiches for work, which he said were 'really nice'. 

This is a compliment indeed; his usual response to 'how do I look' or 'what do you think' is 'fine'. will try it on Pork Roast for a Sunday lunch soon.

Thank you, Julia, for the apples and thank you, Rodger, for preventing me from drowning my apples in too much water!

2 comments:

  1. Found it is also known as 'apple butter' among 'artisan bakers' so I am posher than I thought! New recipe coming soon x

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