Welcome fall! Cooler temps, beautiful colors, and harvest–these are some of my favorite things about fall. However, when it comes to food, fall makes for a very happy time. Garden carrots, potatoes, and onions are hard to beat, but when it is time to pick apples, oh my! We all get a little excited. I’ve made apple crisps, baked apples, and dehydrated apples, but applesauce never gets old!

It takes forever though when you have to peel, core, and slice every apple–especially if they are small apples–so I’ve become a huge fan of Crock Pot Applesauce. I originally saw the idea on a recipe page a couple years ago (sorry, I can’t remember which one), but using a potato masher made the applesauce too chunky for my taste.

What worked well this year was simply quartering the apples, removing the core, and throwing the quarters into the crock with a little water, coconut sugar, and cinnamon.

I cooked them on high for 3-4 hours, then ran them through my food processor once they were soft. There is some texture this way since you don’t peel the apples. I put the applesauce in my nutribullet though and it became so creamy! My family preferred the texture, which means one less step for me, so I simply stayed put with food processing. Yum!

CROCK POT APPLESAUCE

Fill a 5-6 quart crock pot with quartered apples. (You do not need to peel them!)

Add 1-1/2 cups water.

Sprinkle with 1 TBLS of cinnamon.

Add 1/2 cup sugar. (I used coconut sugar for lower glycemic reasons.)

Stir, cover, and cook on high for 3-4 hours.

When apples are soft, put through a food processor with the S blade. (Or leave them and eat them as is–they are like pie filling!)