Who doesn’t love applesauce? You can eat it plain, spread it over vanilla ice cream, and add it to yogurt. Add it to baked recipes. The list is endless. My 6 year old came home from school so excited to share he had learned how to make applesauce in his first grade class. He then of course wanted to teach me how to make it right away, so we did.

I would say cooking with my children is something we always have done. Its something I wanted to include them in, and make them feel apart of things. When they were crawling they would be banging on pots and pans in the kitchen while I danced around and cooked. As they got older we started giving them real jobs, stirring a sauce or making the scrambled eggs. Sometimes Jacob (my 6 year old) comes up with his own recipes, for example, peanut butter with honey on rice cakes, or the not so popular, mustard peanut butter sandwiches.

So this applesauce recipe seemed like the perfect thing to add to our recipe book, and do something well just fun together!

Cheers Friends, Happy Cooking!

-Nicole

Jacob’s Applesauce

Ingredients:

4lbs apples cored and sliced (about 10 apples)

A mixture of red, yellow and green

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon lemon Juice

1-cup water

1-tablespoon vanilla paste (preference only)

Directions:

In large Dutch oven, bring the cup of water to a simmer, add in the apples, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and vanilla. Give it a good mix with a large wooden spoon. Let this simmer until the apples are good and mushy, about 12-20 min. If needs more water add in about a half cup at a time.

Once the apples are good and cooked, remove from heat and blend in a blender or food processer and pulse until combined. The consistency you are looking for is slightly smooth, slightly chunky.

Then transfer mixture to bowls and let completely cool (about 1-2 hours)

When cooled you can store in a container / Mason jar for up to two weeks.

(If it lasts that long!)