Crockpot Cinnamon Applesauce

Homemade applesauce has never been easier. With a few simple ingredients and your Crockpot, you can easily make cinnamon applesauce in your home. Follow our easy instructions below!

Apple Butter Weekend has been a tradition in our family for decades. It’s one of my favorite fall activities. On the rare years that I can’t make the event, I make my own apple butter in the Crockpot.

Oftentimes, there are leftover apples that didn’t get used in the apple butter recipe. Since the apples are already peeled and cut (thanks to this handy apple peeler) it would be a shame to not use them up in some way!

When my mom suggested I cook them in the slow cooker to make applesauce, I had a lightbulb moment: making homemade applesauce is SO easy!

What You Need to Make Cinnamon Applesauce

As mentioned above, the ingredients are SO simple. Here is what you need:

• Apples (McIntosh, Golden Delicious, Gala, Jonathans are recommended)
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon (This can be adjusted depending on how much cinnamon flavor you want!)

How to Make Cinnamon Applesauce

Step 1: Peel and Cut the Apples

To get that smooth applesauce consistency, you’ll want to peel them. I know, it’s a pain. And honestly, if you plan to puree the apples when you’re done, you could probably cheat and leave some peel on. If you do plan to make recipes like this or apple butter frequently, I’d for sure buy an apple peeler.

In my picture below, the apples are cut up into small pieces. While this will help them cook faster, this isn’t really necessary. You can toss them in as normal slices and come out with the same result.

Step 2: Season the apples

Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over the apples and toss until coated. Go ahead, sneak a few bites of them before they are cooked. They are yummy! I usually add 1/2 cup of water or apple cider just to have a little moisture in there. The apples will release a lot of moisture while cooking so you shouldn’t need more than that!

Step 3: Cook Your Applesauce

This is the easy part. Cook the apples on low for about 6 hours and enjoy the delicious scent coming from your kitchen. When the apples are done, you can mash them into the consistency that you prefer. Sometimes I like to make them kind of chunky and serve them as an apple side dish.

But if making a smooth applesauce, you’ll want to use a blender to purée the apple or an immersion blender.

Can I Freeze Applesauce?

As you might know by now, we are big fans of freezer cooking around here. With two cookbooks, 1 Hour Freezer Prep Sessions, and a huge freezer meal recipe index, you can probably guess that we really love the time-saving, energy-saving, money-saving benefits of freezer meals.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we are here to say, YES! You can freeze applesauce!

In fact, applesauce freezes really well. It might become a touch more liquidy after freezing and thawing but the taste of it won’t be effected. Simple place in an airtight freezer container (here are some of our favorite freezer containers by the way.)

For this batch, I am just using a good ol’ freezer bag.

What Goes Well with Cinnamon Applesauce?

Cinnamon applesauce is a kid-friendly side dish that will play nice with all sorts of recipes. Here are some ideas to get you started!

• Pan Seared Pork Chops
• 20 Minute Pumpkin Chili
• Autumn Chowder
• Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables
• Autumn Chopped Salad (add some diced or shredded rotisserie chicken to make it a main dish)