Hi, all! Hope your October is off to a great start. We’ve come to my favorite time of year: harvest time! I love figuring out what to do with all the produce we get from our garden along with the produce from local farms. This post is for a fast and easy recipe for using up all those apples you picked that have gotten bruised or are starting to get really soft- cinnamon applesauce! The recipe is my Mom’s and it is a huge family favorite. Here are the ingredients:

• 1/2 peck apples, ideally Macintosh or Cortland but you can use any variety you like
• 1 cinnamon stick (or you can use powdered cinnamon at the end)
• 2 tbsp white granulated sugar (or to taste)

Core and quarter the apples. No need to peel them unless you want to- the skins will give our applesauce a pretty pink color! Tip: you can just cut around the core for quicker chopping! Put all the apple pieces in a large stockpot with the cinnamon stick and fill the pot with water to almost cover the apples.

Bring the water to a boil, stirring occasionally, and let the apples cook until they are very soft- usually only about 15 minutes. Some will start to break down and become mush, and that is totally normal and fine!

Drain the water from the pot. At this point if you have a food mill, feel free to use it to mash the apples. I don’t have a food mill, so I just use a potato masher and mash the apples up that way.

If you used a food mill, discard the apple skins that didn’t make it through the mill. If you used a potato masher and don’t want apple peel in your applesauce, just pick out the peels by hand or with a fork. Once the peels are out, add the sugar to taste. I prefer to start light on the sugar and work my way up, but I usually end up only needing about 2 tablespoons. Add more cinnamon if needed by grating the cinnamon stick or using powdered cinnamon. You could also add ginger, nutmeg, or other spices if you felt like experimenting.

That’s it! Like I said, super fast and easy. This applesauce keeps well in the fridge for several days, but bets are that you’ll eat it long before then! It’s delicious cold, but I recommend trying it my favorite way: hot over vanilla ice cream. Happy cooking!