A Well Processed Apple

With the fall schedules beginning to take shape, I know what will happen. It will soon be October and we will have not made it apple picking yet. So, we took the opportunity between soccer games at the tournament on Saturday to pick some early season apples....just in case time flies as I suspect.

The apples were small but flavorful, a perfect combination to pack in school lunches and to make a first batch of applesauce.  I can see that I will need to get many more apples processed into sauce, if Charles polishing off an entire pint for breakfast yesterday morning is any indicator of its popularity.

I always love processing garden and fresh picked goodness.  Any waste immediately becomes chicken treats so not really waste at all.  At B's suggestion, we took the apples one step further.  We cooked down all of the cores and skins until they were complete mush.  Then strained the mush through a jelly bag.  We were left with right at 4 cups of the most amazing smelling apple juice, which we immediately added (equal amounts of ) sugar to and cooked to the magic 220 degrees and now also have 6 jars of beautiful pink apple jelly.  To top it off...the chickens loved the remaining mush!  So win, win...a well processed apple!

Apple Jelly ~ One Ingredient!

I have been a public radio fan since I found it shortly after our move to Las Vegas eighteen years ago.   We were thrilled when we moved to Wisconsin to find that our area had two local stations WPR and WUWM.  This week on WPR as I was driving from errand to errand, the guest on Here and Now was Kathy Gunst, a Maine chef who focus' on local and seasonal dishes monthly.  My mouth was watering by the end of the program.  One simple recipe piqued my interest not only because I am apple crazy this time of year, but because all you needed was a few hours of time and one ingredient!

Apple Cider Jelly.  All it takes is some patience and a gallon of the refrigerated apple cider that is all over this time of year.  Pour it in a big pot and bring it to a boil, then simmer it for two hours.  When it gets to where it is just coating the back of the spoon, pay close attention and let it continue to thicken and reduce.

What you are left with is a dark brown reduction of beautiful jelly.  The natural pectin in the apple sauce does all of the work and the caramelized effect of cooking it down allows for no added sugar.  I did stir in a teaspoon of Ceylon Cinnamon at the end and then put it in a mason jar.  As it cooled I skimmed a little bit of foam off of the top and then refrigerated it.  The one gallon of juice yielded me one pint of amazing apple jelly!  I will definitely be doing this again!  I may also have to try her easy baked apple sauce.  Just click the link above for the recipes.

When Life Gives You Apples..

It has been downright cool the last few days.  Enough so that a light sweater outside is perfect.  The last couple of years our apple picking has slipped passed us and we have headed out late in the season, when the best, in my opinion, were over.  This year with the onset of crisp air, I jumped on it and we spent some time Monday exploring a new, to us, orchard about 45 minutes from here.  It wasn't the pick your own that we are used to.  They pick and then we get to sample and load up on all we want.  Very reasonably priced too.

I was especially impressed with the reduced price "seconds".  These are the fruit that have some minor blemish on them, and they were selling for $1 a pound.  Fantastic!  These morsels rarely had a bruise, mostly an abnormality in the skin that for whatever reason tainted their appeal (pun intended ;).  Well not for me!  What do you do when life gives you apples??  Make applesauce, of course.  Yesterday after work, I opened all of the windows to let in the fall-like breeze and began slicing and dicing.


Of the many applesauce recipes that I have made over the years, I find that the easiest is always the best.  I don't like it too sweet so for a large pile o' apples (20) I used 1/2 C sugar, 2 1/4 C water and 2 tsp. cinnamon.  I let it simmer for about 45 minutes and then gently took an immersion blender to smooth it out, but only a little bit, some chunks are just fine!  The batch made six pints of applesauce which I processed in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

I'm thrilled that we so eagerly began the season, Charles wonders why we bothered canning them, they won't last a week!  Well, I have good incentive to make more batches of my four ingredient applesauce, so we can taste the first glimpse of fall the rest of the year! 

Monday evening we finished watching the Walton's with the kids.  All nine seasons plus the movie specials, all in order over about 18 months.  Tonight I am including the applesauce in an old fashioned applesauce cake for B's birthday.  A favorite made by Livy Walton, and a little taste of the simplicity that we strive for.  A happiest of birthdays to my 'old fool'!