CrockPot Applesauce

I have been obsessed with apples lately. I am generally not an apple eater at all, but I recently discovered Honeycrisps and Galas and fell in love! Since apples are in abundance and on sale right now, I decided to try my hand at applesauce.

My mom always made her own applesauce so I started there. Unfortunately, she uses a food mill for her recipe and I don't have, nor do I have any desire to own, a food mill. Then I saw a recipe for applesauce in the Crock Pot and since I have a couple of those already on hand, why not.

I pretty much used this recipe from A Year of CrockPotting only I didn't measure any ingredient except the water and the brown sugar. I even lost count of how many apples I had put in (I think it was around 8 or 9). I used Gala apples, peeled with a peeler and cored/slice with that round gizmo you push down on. Dumped the slices with the ingredients in to my CrockPot, stirred, and cooked on low for 6 hours. It made my home smell like an apple pie was baking all day long! Once finished, I used a potato masher to make it in into applesauce.

YUM! This stuff is DELICIOUS! Even my applesauce-hating hubby liked it (at least enough to eat a spoonful). I think the addition of the vanilla really adds to the flavor. I added 1/2 cup water and next time I either won't add any or only add a 1/4 cup because it was a tad too watery for me.

Galas are on sale again this week so I'm going to make a major batch (or two) and then freeze it for later.