A Healer’s Geste

Applesauce — by popular demand!

Do you see that, Andrea? That just goes to show how broad my audience is. One request is deemed “popular demand.” :)

I made applesauce for last week’s play group lunch for two reasons: 1) It was my turn to bring sides anyway. 2) I had two boxes of apples going bad in my living room. The Gingergolds, my favorite early apple and possibly one incentive I had to marry into the Winckler family, ripened a week and a half before. But Gingergolds do not last long, especially when you put them under a sunny window instead of in the basement. I prefer my Gingergolds green, but they are a yellow apple. Once they get to be yellow, though, they are really only good for pies, applesauce, and other cooked venues. All the apples were now yellow, and being picky about my apples, I refused to eat any more of them out of hand. It was also Tuesday, play group was in the morning, and I wasn’t really sure what I was taking along with the mandatory string cheese. So, I began to chop apples.

I got out my crockpot, washed 10 or so apples, and cored them and quartered them and packed as many as I could into the crockpot. Yes, you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t peel them. I hate peeling apples.

I filled up the crockpot, stuck on the lid, plugged it into the extension cord outside (my house didn’t need further heating), turned it on high, and went in to begin dinner preparation. I wasn’t sure how long I should leave it on high, and I was planning on turning it down to low to cook overnight before I went to bed, so I went out to check it almost two hours later. Moisture had collected on the lid, but it didn’t really look like steam. A fly came up and buzzed up against the lid. I put my hand on the lid, then on the pot; it was cool. Yes, I turned it on. Yes, I plugged it in. I thought I had done so well! The extension cord was unplugged. Later, Matt confirmed that he had deemed it unwise to leave a hot cord exposed to the elements, as I had done the day before when I had brought in a crocked mess of apple butter. So, I plugged in the extension cord and my apples began cooking two hours later than scheduled. It was now 7 o’clock and I had no idea how long it would take for my apples to become applesauce. I kept the crock on high with the intention of returning in another 2 hours to turn it to low for the night.

The next morning I got up at a quarter to seven, put my bread to toast, and went to retrieve the apple butter from the fridge. I observed that I had a package of string cheese in the fridge. “Ah, yes,” I thought to myself, “I am taking sides to play group today.” I went back to the counter with the apple butter and waited for my toast. “I’ll have to finish up those biscuits first thing after breakfast,” I thought. As I took my apple bread out of the toaster and spread apple butter on it, I finally had another apple thought invade my mind. Apple bread, apple butter — Applesauce! Still outside! Still on high!

Now, crockpots are not supposed to burn foods, but mine has. This is actually my second crockpot in six years, and both my crockpots — both of reputable brands — have burned foods. I, therefore, am very hesitant to use the “high” setting and it always makes me nervous. So it was with trepidation that I went outside to check on the damage, wooden spoon in hand.

And it was fine! It was applesauce! I gave it a few good stirs and was relieved to see that it was definitely not burned at all.

I brought it inside and put it under the open kitchen window with the lid off and set at high for another hour to evaporate some of the liquid so it would be a bit thicker, then turned off the heat and let it sit for a bit to cool, then poured the warm substance into various containers and set it in the fridge to cool completely. Forty five minutes before we would leave for play group and it had only cooled to slightly warmer than room temperature, so I stuck it in the freezer in the ice bin. Once at Andrea’s house I again stuck it in the freezer because I like cold applesauce. :) It was well chilled but not frozen by lunch time.

The only problem with the applesauce from my own perspective is that I really should have peeled the apples. The skins didn’t break down enough and they ended up being stringy in the sauce and I did not find that pleasant.

I had made apple butter a couple days before with the same process, except I left the apples on low for something like 30 hours, then brought it inside and had it under the window during the cool of the morning on high for 2 hours — by the end of the 2 hours the cool of the morning had quickly turned to the cool of the air conditioning. It was nice and thick and dark brown and the extra long cooking time does break down the peels so that it still has a smooth texture. It does thicken slightly after being cooled, so that though I put it into the containers at a “wet jam” consistency, by the time it was cold it was much closer to the spreadability of softened butter.

So, there you have it. That’s how I did it. Not quite so amazing or difficult as you probably imagined. And, yes, the applesauce was only apples; I didn’t forget anything. I didn’t add water, cider, sugar, cinnamon, or anything else. Pure apples. I did add a healthy dose of cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar to the apple butter, though. I love cinnamon and apples together.

So, you too can make applesauce in your crockpot overnight. Just check your cords and switches and try not to forget about it and yours might even be better! :)