In my personal quest to cut down on sugar and saturated fats, I have become a huge fan of using homemade applesauce in a lot of my baking recipes. In addition to being absolutely amazing all on its own, the method I’ve grown accustomed to makes use of the skin, which adds a significant amount of fiber to what would otherwise be “empty” calories.

It’s also smoother and creamier than store-bought brands, and when tempered with other types of sweeteners like stevia and a few tablespoons of maple syrup, honey, or sugar if need be, it keeps muffins and other cake-like products more moist for the duration of the good’s natural shelf-life.

 

Plus, it keeps in the refrigerator for more than a week, which means that adding it into general preparations makes it oh, so easy to whip up a batch of breakfast muffins on the fly. All you need is a few pounds of apples (the cheaper organic varieties at Trader Joe’s work quite nicely), two tablespoons of your oil of choice (I use coconut or olive, depending on my mood or what’s closest), an oven, and a decent blender. I hope you like it.

Makes about 4-5 cups applesauce

Prep-time: -10 minutes, baking time -60 minutes

Ingredients

3lbs of apples (fuji or jazz apples work really well, or something comparable, or a combination)

2 tbsp oil

1/8 tsp salt (or to taste)

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1/2 tsp cinnamon (also optional)

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Core and cut apples into slices, about 8 per apple.

2. Place the pieces of apple into a baking dish and cover with lid or tin foil. No oil or grease is necessary. Just the apple.

3. Bake for roughly 50 minutes, or until the apples are as pictured: limp to the touch. Remove from the oven and let them cool.

4. Spoon the cooled apples into a blender. Add other ingredients. Blend on high speed until smooth.

Sometimes it’s necessary to move the apples around to ensure they’re all pureed equally. Everything should be smooth — almost pudding-like.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator up to 2 1/2 weeks.