Food Saver Series: Apples

Dried apple slices and freezing applesauce and apple pie filling

We have an apple tree, but yet to see any fruit come off it. Luckily, we have wonderful neighbors that have one, a beautiful mature Gravenstein – and they don’t want the apples. Or at least they don’t want all the apples that it tends to produce. So, every year I gladly take my picker over and with the help of my husband and daughter we pick hundreds of apples. These apples are so yummy and make the best died apples, applesauce and apple pie filling.

Drying Apples:

Wash the apples well, the tree we get ours from is not treated with any pesticides, so that’s one good thing, but the apples do tend to get gnawed on by critters, so after I wash them, each gets inspected to make sure it’s ok. I then use my mandolin (be careful not to cut yourself!) and slice them into 1/4-inch pieces. Dunk them in a lemon water bath and place them on the dehydrator. You can dry them as is, or what I like to do is add a little cinnamon on top then dry them. They will need to dry for 6-8 hours.

To make applesauce/apple pie filling:

For applesauce:

Wash and cut all apples, place them in a heavy pot and add just a little water – like 1/4-1/2 cup water. Just enough to keep them from scorching. Then cover and cook until soft, stir occasionally. A large pot usually takes less then 30 minutes. As you will note I do not remove the skins and depending on the apples I don’t add sugar to the applesauce. Once the apples are cooked, I process the apples through my food processor until it reaches the consistency that I want.

For apple pie filling:

Wash and cut all apples, place them in a heavy pot and add just a little water – like 1/4-1/2 cup water. Just enough to keep them from scorching. Add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice to the pot with the apples and cover and cook until soft, stir occasionally. A large pot usually takes less then 30 minutes. As you will note I do not remove the skins, once the apples are done, I process the apples through my food processor until it reaches the consistency that I want. I usually let the pie filling be a bit chunkier than the applesauce.

For both applesauce and apple pie filling:

After the sauce and pie filling are all processed, I placed 2 cups or processed apples into quart freezer bags.