The final farmer's market of the year is upon us; Saturday will be the last day, outdoors. The vendors have already been dwindling, as frost approaches. A few will remain, at an indoor venue, for as long as they can, but at that point it will be down to a lot of late-variety apples and squash. The last Saturday in October is always the close of a season's chapter.
It's always a little melancholy to wave good-bye for the winter to the vendors who are such a regular, twice-a-week fixture in my life from May to October. For someone like me who loves good food and good conversation, and especially good conversation about good food, well... the farmers market is the place to be.
This year I have had conversations with vendors on all topics food related: gardening, dehydration, recipes, and cooking techniques...I even learned some valuable tips on how to cook wild game, along with the opportunity to hear stories of their own family's hunting adventures. Even more special, whenever I see the lady whose family produces our beef, she gives me a hug. :) She knows my name, and I know hers. She shares pictures of her family and their beautiful ranch; I share my favorite beef recipes.
These are the people who lovingly nurture the food that goes into my family. When I ask God to bless our food at the dinner table, I often pray for the hands that produced our food. I know those hands, and those faces; I've seen their farms, and heard their stories. I pray for their harvests. These folks are the ones that prepare the soil, remove the weeds, feed and water, protect from bugs, and finally harvest the food that feeds me and my family.
Well, onward. Soon it will be time to move into the season of sorting through the grocery store offerings in the produce department, and ultimately deciding to go frozen, dried, or canned in many cases.
But for now, we still have fresh local apples, so that's what I'm cookin' today, in honor of the last market day.
Chunky Cinnamon Cranberry Applesauce
Applesauce is more art that science. You have to just play with it a little, til you get it just how you want it. I made a batch today with leftover cranberries I happened to have in the fridge, and as I went along I took note of times and measurements so I would be able to document this "recipe" and share it.
- 10-12 medium to large apples, ripe, washed, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 to 1 cup fresh cranberries, (sort out any soft wrinkley ones), rinsed and rough chopped
- water
- 1 T. lemon juice
- Honey to taste--(I used 3 Tablespoons)
- Cinnamon to taste (I used 1 tsp.)
- Pumpkin pie spice blend (I used Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus spice blend) to taste (I used 1/4 tsp.)
Combine apples (just roughly chopped into about 1 " chunks) and cranberries, in large pot (I used a 6 qt. enameled cast iron dutch oven). Add lemon juice and water (about 1 " to start with...) in the bottom of the pot.
Turn heat on medium-high and cover until it gets boiling. Uncover. Stir. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and let it simmer. Don't go too far away, you want to keep checking on it and stirring it, so it doesn't dry out and stick to the bottom.
When the apples start to get soft, begin mashing them. (I used a Pampered Chef Mix and Chop tool, pictured below). Just keep stirring, if it starts to look like it needs more water, keep adding it in, enough to keep the applesauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan, and the consistency you want.
As the apples start to cook down and turn into sauce, just keep adding water bit by bit as you think you need it. As it thickens, bubbles will sort of "blop" to the surface, keep stirring it off the bottom.
From the time I turned the heat on until it was done, was about 45 minutes. I like the consistency to be "applesauce-y", but still with some soft chunks of apple in it, sort of apple pie-filling-ish. When you are happy with the consistency, go ahead and add in your cinnamon to taste (and whatever other spices you want, like the spice blend I used...but go lighter and taste it, my measurements may be too spicy for you.) and add your honey, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and taste it. You may need more or less than 3 T. of honey, depending upon the sweetness of your fruit.
Then take it off the burner, cover it with the lid, and let it sit on a cool part of the stovetop for 15 minutes.
Transfer to large glass or stainless steel bowl and refrigerate.
I like to package this up into 1/2 cup portions in small containers with lids, and just line them up in the fridge for lunches and snacks. This recipe makes about 9 cups, so about 18 servings. Another option is to put the cooled applesauce into freezer containers and freeze. It is really a nice thing to have on hand for emergency snacks or to use in baking, like muffin and bread recipes that call for applesauce. You can easily blend it, either in a blender, or with an immersion blender right in the pot, if you prefer a perfectly smooth applesauce.
This really is a fantastic dessert to have in the house this time of year. It's super-simple, and it doesn't take long at all to make. If your apples are organic and you wish to leave the peel on, go right ahead! The peel contains lots of great nutrients. My family doesn't care for the peel in our applesauce.
Applesauce recipes are all over the place...you can search the internet with the specific ingredients you want to include (maybe you want to use pear, or blueberries...maybe you want to sweeten with pure maple syrup instead of honey...) or look in just about any cookbook for further information.
Here's what mine looked like when I called it "done"..
I just gotta dedicate this post to K.W. who taught me the art of applesauce making, without a recipe! ;) Thanks for the great memories dear friend.
* UPDATE: Here's a smooth version. I increased the lemon juice to 1 1/2 T., omitted the cinnamon, and used 1 tsp. Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend instead. Also, I did not need ANY honey whatsoever. It was plenty sweet all on it's own. Just apples, spice blend, and water. When the apples were soft I just used and immersion blender right in the pot to puree the applesauce. Very simple, and delicious. Just be careful to keep the immersion blender immersed under the surface of the applesauce as you blend. You don't want hot applesauce splashing up onto your skin.
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