If you've ever wanted to make homemade applesauce, here's your chance! Making and canning applesauce is a breeze with this simple applesauce recipe with detailed canning instructions. If you have more apples, be sure to try my popular Canning Apple Pie Filling post!
I recently got a lot of apples from our friends Jim & Laura. They invited us to their lovely home to pick apples... ok, we actually invited ourselves, but why split hairs about the details?
I've enjoyed making freeze dried apple chips, apple butter, apple sauce, and apple pie filling with the haul so far. This is my second round of applesauce, so I decided to share the recipe with you guys this time around.
This small batch applesauce recipe makes enough for eight to nine 4-ounce jars, but you can easily double the recipe! If you end up with extra apples, you can always make yourself a microwave apple crisp!
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🧐 Why This Recipe Works
- Making applesauce in a crockpot at home is super easy and makes your house smell amazing as it cooks.
- Canning applesauce is also super easy so you can enjoy applesauce all year long!
- Homemade applesauce is much better than store-bought applesauce.
- You get to control the amount of sugar and what spices to add, if any.
- I like to use applesauce in baking recipes to cut down on the amount of fat, especially in my pumpkin bread!
🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
🔖 Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions
- Apples: Using a variety of apples makes the best applesauce, but you can use your favorite apple variety. See "best apples for applesauce" section below for some ideas.
- Sugar: I like to use brown sugar, but you can use white granulated sugar instead. You can also leave the sugar out completely, or add other sweeteners like honey!
- Vanilla Extract: Add vanilla extract or splurge and add a vanilla bean instead.
- Spices: Feel free to add any of the following spices or leave out the ones you don't like: Cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, or ginger.
*See recipe card on the bottom of the post for a full list of ingredients & measurements.
🔪 Helpful Tools
- Apple peeler/corer
- Slow cooker
- Food mill or strainer
- Immersion blender
- Waterbath canner with canning funnel, jar lifter, etc
- Eight 4-ounce canning cars, or four half-pint jars
🍎 How To Make Apple Sauce
Step 1: Peel and slice apples either by hand or with an apple peeler/corer. Add to a large crockpot.
Pro Tip: If you're not worried about a smooth texture, you can leave the skins on for extra fiber.
Step 2: Sprinkle brown sugar over the apples then add cinnamon sticks, vanilla extract, salt, and spices. Cover with the lid and set the dial on low. Set a timer to 4 hours.
Pro Tip: Since the apples cook slowly, they breakdown and provide enough liquid for the applesauce. However, feel free to add just enough water, apple juice, or apple cider to prevent the apples from sticking.
Step 3: Stir the apples half way through to distribute the spices throughout the apple mixture. At this point you can also taste it to see if the applesauce needs more sugar or if it needs some lemon juice to make it more tart.
Step 4: When the time is up, remove cinnamon sticks and use an immersion blender or a potato masher to get the applesauce to the preferred consistency. I like mine a little chunky.
Pro Tip: I like to pour the applesauce into a large measuring cup so I know how many jars I will need to can the applesauce.
🫙 How To Can Applesauce
Step 1: Wash lids and collars with hot soapy water and set aside. Sterilize jars by adding clean jars to a cold water bath canner, or a large pot. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least a few inches. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 2: Remove jars from the canner. Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars leaving ½" headspace. Remove air bubbles by running a knife around the inside edges of the jar. Wipe the rims with a clean paper towel then fasten the lids and collars.
Step 3: Lower filled jars into hot water-bath canner. Bring water to a boil over medium-high heat, then set a timer for 20 minutes. When the time is up, remove jars from canner and wait until all the jars seal before labeling and storing in the pantry.
Pro Tip: Any jars that don't seal should be stored in the fridge to be consumed first.
⛰ Adjust Processing Time For Altitude
If you live 1000 feet or higher above sea level, you need to adjust the processing time for higher altitude! Follow the times listed below.
| Altitude | Additional Processing Time |
| 1,001 — 3,000 3,001 — 6,000 6,001 — 8,000 8,001 — 10,000 | 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes |
🍏 Best Apples for Applesauce
You can technically use any apples to make applesauce. Unlike making an apple pie, you don't have to worry so much about the final texture since the applesauce will have a saucy consistency.
However, you do want the taste to be balanced. It's always a good idea to include some sweet (Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious) and sour varieties (Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jazz). Here are some other options:
- McIntosh
- Honeycrisp
- Gala
- Cortland
- Crispin
- Red Delicious
- Anna
🤷🏻♀️ FAQs
Applesauce needs to water bathed for 20 minutes when not being refrigerated. This time will need to be increased for higher altitudes.
You only need to water bath canned applesauce if you don't refrigerate it. If you prefer, you can skip the boiling-water canner and use a pressure canner instead!
You don't have to add lemon juice, but it would help to preserve the applesauce. It may also help with the flavor of the applesauce if you are using sweeter apples and want the applesauce to be slightly tart.
No, you do not need to add sugar to applesauce. It's really a matter of preference. However, you may want to add some sugar to balance out the flavor between sweet and tart.
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips
- If you don't peel your apples, you can run the applesauce through a food mill to remove the peels before you can the apple sauce.
- You can adjust the sweetness of this recipe by decreasing the amount of sugar. However, I don't recommend adding more sugar until after you stir the applesauce halfway through. At that point, you can add more sugar if needed.
- If you are not using any tart apples, add up to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the mixture prior to cooking.
🫐 Related Recipes
If you enjoyed this canning applesauce recipe, you may want to check out these other apple recipes as well!
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
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📖 Recipe
Making and Canning Applesauce
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker
- 1 foodmill
- 1 Immersion Blender
- 1 canner
- 9 4-ounce mason jars
Ingredients
- 3½ lbs apples
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks (or 1½ teaspoon cinnamon)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Peel and slice apples either by hand or with an apple peeler/corer. Add to a large crockpot.
- Sprinkle brown sugar over the apples then add cinnamon sticks, vanilla extract, salt, and spices. Cover with the lid and set the dial on low. Set a timer to 4 hours.
- Stir the apples half way through to distribute the spices throughout the apple mixture. At this point you can also taste it to see if the applesauce needs more sugar or if it needs some lemon juice to make it more tart.
- When the time is up, remove cinnamon sticks and use an immersion blender or a potato masher to get the applesauce to the preferred consistency. I like mine a little chunky.
Canning Instructions
- Wash lids and collars with hot soapy water and set aside. Sterilize jars by adding clean jars to a cold water bath canner, or a large pot. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least a few inches. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove jars from the canner. Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars leaving ½" headspace. Remove air bubbles by running a knife around the inside edges of the jar. Wipe the rims with a clean paper towel then fasten the lids and collars.
- Lower filled jars into hot water-bath canner. Bring water to a boil over medium-high heat, then set a timer for 20 minutes. When the time is up, remove jars from canner and wait until all the jars seal before labeling and storing in the pantry.
Notes
- If you're not worried about a smooth texture, you can leave the skins on for extra fiber.
- Since the apples cook slowly, they breakdown and provide enough liquid for the applesauce. However, feel free to add just enough water, apple juice, or apple cider to prevent the apples from sticking.
- I like to pour the applesauce into a large measuring cup so I know how many jars I will need to can the applesauce.
- Any jars that don't seal should be stored in the fridge to be consumed first.
- If you don't peel your apples, you can run the applesauce through a food mill to remove the peels before you can the apple sauce.
- You can adjust the sweetness of this recipe by decreasing the amount of sugar. However, I don't recommend adding more sugar until after you stir the applesauce halfway through. At that point, you can add more sugar, if needed.
- If you are not using any tart apples, add up to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the mixture prior to cooking.
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you for the review!
Linda J Mcintyre says
Thank You!!
Hilda Sterner says
I've been enjoying adding a few tablespoons to my yogurt in the morning.
Kelly Methey says
Can’t wait to make this! I just have to get some apples…