#13 Autumn Apple Pear Sauce

Well I have to say, this whole testing-52-slow-cooker-recipes-and-blogging-about-it thing is full of surprises.

Yesterday I made "Autumn Apple Pear Sauce", from Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook, by American Heart Association. 

Going into this recipe, I would have guessed it would have turned out to be one of my ultimate favorites.  Umm, well, it wasn't, really.  It was kinda so-so.

The recipe is a super-simple apple and pear sauce, just exactly what you'd expect.  It called for 3 to 3 1/2 lbs of apples and pears, some sugar, some lemon juice and a couple of autumnal-type spices.  I substituted 1 1/2 T. of Sucanat (dehydrated cane juice) for the 2 T. of sugar called for in the recipe.

In all fairness, I may have messed this one up.  It was supposed to cook 5 hrs on low.  At 5 hrs it wasn't quite where I wanted it yet, but we were going in to town, so I added (too much) water, to make sure it didn't go dry and end up as apple-pear BUTTER before I got home.

When we got home it had been 7 hrs.  Eh.  It was ok.  Still too watery.  So I cranked it up to high and took the lid off to try to get it to reduce for a 1/2 hr., so 8 hrs total.

Personally, I thought it was WAAAY too sweet.  I used Gala apples and Starkrimson pears.  Next time I would omit the sugar, use tart-er apples only, and omit the pears.  That is, if I were to ever make this one again, which I probably wouldn't.

Strangely, my family really liked it though.  My hubby really liked the pear flavor about it. Another family member said it needed a "crust", like pie or pastry.  I did not like the texture at all, but I'm going to just heat it up and serve it as waffle topping tomorrow, and that should actually be a pretty good use for it.

It just wasn't the chunky, perfectly textured applesauce my little heart desired.

To bottom line it for you:  I would not make applesauce this way again.  I am going to stick to Golden Delicious apples, and do it on the stovetop, like I always have before, in a huge stock pot, instead of a slow cooker.  No added sugar.  I don't usually eat sugar, so things that are sweetened, or have concentrated fruit sugars, tend to taste extremely sweet to me.  Sickly sweet.  Not in a good way. 

I will say this; the house smelled splendid.  Very fall-ish.  Very...September.   And that alone was a very good thing.  It helped me stop mourning the end of summer, and start moving on, mentally, into fall. 

I always have a hard time giving up the laid-back, non-schedule of summer, and it's just unnervingly quiet around the house during the day once school starts.

Sniff.  I'm  ok. 

Still going to have one "kid" with me during the day. 
She doesn't talk much though.