Slow Cooker Apple Pie Filling-Like Applesauce Recipe
We’ve hit the apple orchards already this Fall and as is typical each year I’m not one whose quick to bake a pie. I love the look of the apples on the trees, often wonder why we don’t have more of these in our backyards, and if asked what my favorite dessert is, I might just say Apple Pie.
However, I really love cooking. Baking on the other hand isn’t my favorite. I love how cooking is less precise, you can change things on a whim and there isn’t as much precision involved. Baking requires more exact measurements and a higher probability of things not turning out well. No surprise then that I turned our fresh apples into delicious homemade applesauce. I’m adding this to yet another one of my favorite slow cooker recipes!
All the Apples
Chunky applesauce is so easy to make in your crock pot and I find it an easy way to get my kids to eat the apples they may find too tart to snack on. In this particular trip we had a lot of Granny Smith apples available to us. Unlike sweet Gala, pink lady, or Honeycrisp apples I knew this green variety would give the best results when it comes to homemade apple pie or in this case crockpot applesauce given its tart flavor. If you have other apple varieties available, it’s still worth trying!
Dessert Anyone?
I love the nod to a crock pot apple pie filling with the cinnamon and brown sugar. How delicious would this be warm over vanilla ice cream? Skip the step of making pie dough, something I’m not the best at, and you have a lovely fall dessert.
When it comes to apple picking its definitely one of my favorite activities. Blueberries, raspberries, peaches, they all go bad fairly quickly after being picked. Unlike those you can pick a bunch of apples this time of year and know they’ll keep for several weeks, unless you quickly cook with them all like I tend do.
What do you Make?
So far we’ve made some amazing recipes like Joanna Gaines’ apple easy pie recipe and an apple baked oatmeal using simple ingredients. We’ve also made this slow cooker apple sauce.
I called it apple pie filling applesauce because it reminds me of all those flavors, but next time I’d omit the sugar all together. You can do that if you’d like! I wanted there to be enough spice in this and there definitely is! It’s amazing how quickly and easily this cooked down, and how quickly we’ve eaten through it!
You could freeze this if you don’t eat it within a week or so in mason jars or a freezer bag. I like to store mine in any airtight container like a mason jar in the fridge. Fun fact, my Mom loves when applesauce is still a bit frozen. It reminds her of her grandma and she claims it also tastes like ice cream. We enjoyed this warm, and cold. Given the sugar, it’s also a great healthier dessert option!
Ready to Cook?
When you’re ready to make this simply combine all of the ingredients in the slow cooker. You con’t need to worry about dicing the apples up too small since they cook down so much. You won’t even been an immersion blender at the end! After cooking on low heat for about 6 hours mine were already very soft. Once I mixed them around the sliced apples easily mashed together, resulting in a beautiful applesauce.
Variations are Always Available
If you don’t want to use as much cinnamon you could use less based on personal preference. You could try adding other spices if you’d like, or less. Spices are one of my favorite ways to alter recipes whenever I’m making a homemade version of something. I remember always sprinkling cinnamon on top of applesauce growing up, but here you won’t need that.
My kids are big fans of anything with pumpkin pie spice, so that may be something I’d try out here as well. After making this we used up all our apples from the orchard. It’s rainy and a little chilly here today which isn’t helping my desire to head back out and get more apples, but this time for apple crisp.
If you make this I’d love to hear! I hope you love these simple recipes I’ve been sharing with you and I hope you find time to make this slow cooker applesauce recipe. It’s about to be one of our afternoon snacks today as soon as the baby wakes from his nap. Enjoy!
Slow Cooker Apple Pie Filling Applesauce
Ingredients
- 8 apples Granny Smith preferred, peeled and sliced
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Combine everything in your slow cooker, stir and cook on low for 6 hours!
- Once cooking time is complete enjoy warm or store in the fridge for about one week. You can also freeze this if you double or triple the recipe!
