Simple Slow Cooker Applesauce

It’s always nice to know people who have apple trees in their yards who are willing to share! My grandma and my friend give me apples every summer so I make applesauce to use in my baking year-round.

This recipe is so easy to make because you don’t have to peel the apples. Simply cut around the core, fill your slow cooker, add a bit of water, and let it cook on low for 4-6 hours. Puree the sauce once the apples have softened. The peels give it a peachy-pink color and the applesauce doesn’t have any added sugar. You can of course add sugar and cinnamon to taste if you plan on eating the applesauce as-is.

How to store your applesauce

I like to freeze it in 1-cup portions in small freezer bags. One batch of applesauce will yield about 9-10 cups of applesauce, depending on the size of your apples. Let the sauce cool completely before portioning it into freezer bags. Lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet before freezing to save space. I like to portion in one cup portions because I mostly use this apple sauce in these Healthy Banana Muffins with Applesauce, or these Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins.

If you have some time on your hands, you can also can it to make it shelf-stable. The National Centre for Home Food Preservation is a great resource for safe canning practices. Follow the instructions for canning applesauce here.

How to use your applesauce

As I mentioned, I like to use mine mostly in baking. There are a few of my go-to muffin recipes on my Tried & True Pinterest Board. You can modify most muffin or cake recipes to use applesauce as a substitute for butter or margarine. For one cup of butter, use 3/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup canola oil. Using applesauce makes cakes moist and more cost-effective, as the price of butter is rising by the day. You could also use it as a topping for oatmeal or as a substitution for an egg in your favorite muffin or cake. If using as an egg substitute, use 1/4 cup applesauce for one egg.

Preventing food waste

Even if you don’t get a load of apples from a tree, you can set aside bruised apples from the store and freeze them until you’re ready to make a full batch. Again, slice around the core and place in a freezer bag. Keep adding to the bag until you have enough to make a batch of sauce. For more tips on preventing food waste for a variety of ingredients, see page 64 of your Ultimate Guide.

Simple Slow Cooker Applesauce

This three-step recipe is easy to execute and virtually hands-free.

Course Breakfast
Keyword apples, applesauce
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours
Servings 9 cups

Ingredients

  • Apples
  • 1/2 cup Water optional

Instructions

  1. Cut around the core of the apples and fill your slow cooker.

  2. Add 1/2 cup water to large slow cookers, and 1/4 cup to smaller slow cookers.

  3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until apples break apart when you stir them.

  4. Puree the sauce with an immersion blender.

  5. Cool completely before portioning and freezing in bags.

Recipe Notes

Adding water creates steam and helps speed up the process but is not necessary. 

If you are canning the sauce, fill hot, sterilized jars with hot applesauce and follow the guidelines from the National Center for Home Food Preservation for safe canning practices. 

Carrot Oat Mini-Muffins

These carrot oat mini-muffins are the perfect after-school snack or lunch box addition.

Key ingredients

Whenever I develop muffin recipes, I always try to make sure they include bananas or applesauce. Why? Who doesn’t have a ton of bananas in their freezer? Also, we always have a ton of homemade unsweetened applesauce on hand that we make with apples from our friend’s tree. Applesauce is also a more economical choice and a pantry/freezer ingredient, versus using butter, so I like that too!

Food waste tip: Make your own applesauce from bruised apples

Did you know that you can make your own applesauce? Drop chopped skin-on apples in your slow cooker with 1/2 cup of water. Cook it on low for about 6 hours, puree and freeze!

I also like to use whole wheat flour and oats in my muffin recipes because I know my kids will take them for snack, lunch, or even breakfast sometimes, and I want them to be filling and satiating so the kids aren’t asking for another snack right after they have one.

We always have carrots in the fridge, so it’s an easy ingredient to include.

These Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins with Salted Caramel Chips also contain whole wheat flour, oats and applesauce. A few other muffins on my regular roster are these Chocolate Zucchini Muffins these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Both contain bananas!

Meal prep tip: Shred carrots while you chop carrots for another meal or snack

One of my favorite meal prep tips is to touch ingredients once for all uses. That means, shred the carrots for the muffins and bake them while you chop carrots for your weeknight meals and for lunches. This saves on dishes and time!

Mini-muffins or standard size?

I used to make standard sized muffins for the kids to take to school all the time, but I was always sending them in plastic bags. I have a personal goal to try to send zero-waste/low-waste lunches as much as I can, so these mini-muffins fit perfectly in the containers I have for the kids’ lunch boxes.

Waste-reducing tip: Avoid paper muffin tin liners

You can reduce waste by simply greasing your mini-muffin tins with cooking spray and skipping the paper liner. You can also purchase silicone mini-muffin liners.

If you’d like to make standard sized muffins, simply increase the cooking time by 5 minutes.

The kids couldn’t keep their grubby little fingers off these muffins.

Meal prep tips for Carrot Oat Mini-Muffins

If you want to pre-measure your ingredients, then bake them later, use three containers: One for the dry ingredients, one for the liquid ingredients and one for the carrots. You can whip together a batch quickly while your dinner is in the oven, then bake them while you eat. When they’re ready, you clean up once! Plus, your oven will already be pre-heated from cooking dinner.

Warm or cool?

I typically enjoy a warm fresh-baked muffin right out of the oven, but these muffins are a lot more flavorful when you let them cool and allow the flavors to concentrate.

Carrot Oat Mini Muffins

Carrot Oat Mini Muffins are the perfect bite-sized treat.

Course Breakfast, Snack
Keyword carrot, mini muffins, muffins, oatmeal
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes
Servings 40 muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups carrots

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

  2. Combine brown sugar, applesauce, egg and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined.

  3. Add flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and mix until combined.

  4. Stir in carrots.

  5. Use a cookie scoop to drop into greased or lined mini muffin tins.

  6. Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes.