Baked Apples and Homemade Applesauce

This weekend was a fairly laid back weekend. We stayed around the house catching up on things from my family being in to visit and the big Halloween party we helped host. Last weekend was such a long weekend,that we just wanted to catch up this weekend. That is exactly what we did.

Besides the every day regular cleaning and washing clothes, I also wanted to pack away some baked apples and homemade applesauce. I had bought tons and tons of apples to do this with and we went and picked some more from the yard, so I thought it was the perfect time to take care of this.

Baking apples and making homemade applesauce is so easy. All you need is apples, apple juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon. This is what I like to put in our applesauce, but there is much more you can add to it as well.

I steamed the apples whole and then skinned them. After they were skinned, I pulled everything off the apple up to the core and tossed the core. I did this for the apples that I was using for the applesauce. For the baked apples, I sliced them. Then I steamed those as well. I find steaming them is much easier and quicker than actually baking them. It also doesn't alter the flavor if you are using them for these things.

Applesauce was then stirred with some apple juice, brown sugar and cinnamon to taste, and some lemon juice to help preserve it. Once it was complete, it was sent to my husband to be jarred.

For the baked apples, I added a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon with a splash of lemon juice. Then they were also sent to my husband to be jarred. For these, I saved some of the water from the steamer to add to keep them most in the jars.

Of course, I did give both a taste test and so did the girls. I can't wait to pop these open at some point and give them a nice taste!!

I'm hoping to jar some homemade apple pie filling as well. But that wil have to be saved for a later day and/or weekend.

Do you jar? Do you make homemade applesauce?