Homemade Applesauce

This Homemade Applesauce takes 6 ingredients and about 40 minutes, most of which is the Instant Pot doing its thing while you’re elsewhere. It’s barely sweetened, so the apples actually taste like apples. There’s a stovetop version below if you’d rather use a pot.

Easy Homemade Applesauce Recipe

Applesauce is what you make when you’ve bought too many apples, and I say that with real affection.

It happens every fall. You go to the orchard or the farmers market with sensible intentions, and you come home with a bag the size of a small child. A week later half of them have gone slightly soft and you’re staring at them wondering what happened.

That’s applesauce. Soft apples are actually better for it, because they break down faster and taste sweeter. So this recipe is essentially a rescue mission that happens to produce something delicious.

I do mine in the Instant Pot. Five minutes at pressure, 20 minutes of natural release, then a mash. Almost none of that is active work. If you’d rather use a saucepan there’s a stovetop method further down, and it’s just as good, it just wants you standing nearby.

The best part is the sugar. Store bought applesauce is usually much sweeter than it needs to be. Mine has half a cup across 10 apples, which is barely there, and you can drop it entirely if your apples are sweet. Once you’ve had applesauce that tastes like apples instead of candy, the jarred stuff is hard to go back to.

The Best Apples For Applesauce

Applesauce is more forgiving than pie, because everything’s going to collapse anyway. But the variety still changes what you end up with.

• Apples that break down easily are what you want here. That’s the opposite of pie. McIntosh, Gala, Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Cortland all go soft quickly and turn into sauce with barely any encouragement.
• Honeycrisp and Braeburn hold their shape a bit more, which gives you a chunkier result. Not a problem, just something to know.
• Granny Smith is tart and firm. On its own it makes a sharp, quite loose sauce that wants more sugar. In a mix it’s excellent, because that tartness stops everything tasting flat.
• My usual is a mix, roughly two thirds sweet and one third tart. Gala or Honeycrisp with a couple of Granny Smiths thrown in.
• And soft apples are fine. Better than fine. If they’ve gone a bit past it in the fruit bowl, this is exactly what they’re for. Bruises cut out, the rest straight in the pot.
• How many: 10 medium apples, which is roughly 4 pounds. They cook down a lot, so what looks like a mountain becomes a fairly modest amount of sauce.

Ingredients in Homemade Applesauce

• Apples (10 medium, about 4 pounds, peeled, cored, and quartered): A mix of varieties gives you more interesting flavor than any single one. Gala, Honeycrisp, and Golden Delicious are my usual with a couple of Granny Smiths for tartness. Soft apples work brilliantly here.
• Water (½ cup): Just enough to get things going and to stop the Instant Pot complaining about scorching. Apples release plenty of their own liquid once they heat up.
• Granulated sugar (½ cup): Modest on purpose. Half a cup across 10 apples is background sweetness, not dessert. Taste at the end and add more if you want it, or leave it out entirely if your apples are sweet enough. Honey and maple syrup both work.
• Lemon juice (1 tablespoon, fresh): Keeps the color bright and stops the whole thing tasting flat. Sugar without acid gets dull fast. Apple cider vinegar does the same job if you’re out of lemons.
• Ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon, optional): I put it in most of the time, but I’d genuinely try one batch without. Plain applesauce tastes much more of apple, and it’s a nice surprise if you’ve only ever had the cinnamon version.
• Salt (¼ teaspoon): Small amount, real job. It sharpens everything and makes the apples taste more like themselves.

How To Make Applesauce In The Instant Pot

Prep the apples. Wash, peel, core, and quarter them, keeping the pieces roughly the same size so they cook evenly. This is the only part that takes any real effort, and an apple corer makes short work of it.

Everything into the pot. Apples, water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Give it a stir so the sugar isn’t all sitting on the bottom.

Lid on, vent to sealing, Manual, 5 minutes on high pressure. That’s it for your involvement.

Then let it release naturally for 20 minutes. Don’t reach for the quick release. The apples keep softening during that time and the gradual pressure drop is part of what makes them collapse properly. It’s also considerably less dramatic than venting a pot full of hot apple.

Mash it. Open it up and go in with a potato masher for something rustic and chunky, or an immersion blender for smooth. Both are correct. See the section below on which one to pick.

If it looks watery, hit Sauté. Let it bubble away for a few minutes, stirring, until it’s where you want it. It also thickens noticeably as it cools, so stop slightly before it looks right.

Cool and jar it. Airtight container, fridge for a week, freezer for 3 months. 

Stovetop Method

If you don’t have an Instant Pot or just don’t feel like getting it out, a saucepan does this perfectly well.

Put the prepared apples in a large heavy pot with the water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat, then turn it down to low and cover.

Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the apples fall apart when you press them with a spoon. Keep the heat gentle. Applesauce catches on the bottom of the pan easily and scorched apple is a flavor you can’t hide.

If it’s looking dry partway through, add a splash more water. If it’s looking loose at the end, take the lid off and let it bubble a few minutes to reduce.

Then mash or blend exactly as you would with the Instant Pot version.

The stovetop takes about the same total time. The difference is that it wants you in the kitchen, whereas the Instant Pot lets you wander off.

Chunky Or Smooth?

Entirely up to you, and worth deciding before you start mashing.

• Chunky is what a potato masher gives you. Soft pieces of apple still visible, a bit rustic, and it looks unmistakably homemade. This is my preference and it’s what I’d serve alongside pork.
• Smooth comes from an immersion blender, 30 seconds and you’re there. Better for children, better for baking, better for stirring into oatmeal. A regular blender or food processor works too, in batches, and you want to be careful because hot applesauce in a blender can erupt.
• Somewhere in between is easy: blend half of it, stir it back into the rest. Silky with texture running through it, and it’s the version most people like best.

Adjusting The Sweetness

The best thing about making your own is that you get to decide this, and store bought never lets you.

As written, half a cup of sugar across 10 apples is gentle. It rounds things out without making it taste like dessert.

No sugar at all works and it’s genuinely good, especially with sweet varieties like Gala, Fuji, or Golden Delicious. Add an extra squeeze of lemon to keep it from tasting flat. This is the version to make for babies and small children.

Sweeter is fine too, and some people want that. Add it a tablespoon at a time at the end and taste as you go, because you can always add and you can’t take it out.

Honey or maple syrup both work well and change the flavor in a nice way. Maple in particular is lovely with the cinnamon. Stir them in after cooking rather than before.

And taste at the end regardless. Apples vary enormously from bag to bag, and a batch of very sweet apples needs almost nothing.

Storage And Freezing

Fridge: an airtight container for up to a week. It thickens a little as it sits.

Freezer: up to 3 months. Freeze it in the portions you’ll actually use rather than one big block. Small containers, freezer bags laid flat, or an ice cube tray if you want single servings for a baby or for baking. Leave headspace, because it expands.

Thawing: overnight in the fridge. It might look slightly separated when it thaws, which is normal. Give it a stir and it comes back together.

Canning: applesauce cans well in a water bath and keeps for a year, but the process has real safety requirements around acidity and processing times that go beyond what I’ve covered here. If you want to go that route, follow proper canning guidance rather than winging it.

What To Do With Applesauce

Straight from the fridge with a spoon is the honest answer and I’d defend it.

Beyond that, it’s traditional alongside pork chops and pork roast, and there’s a good reason for that pairing that goes back centuries. It’s excellent on pancakes, waffles, and oatmeal, and it’s very good stirred through plain yogurt with a bit of granola.

In baking it replaces oil or butter in muffins, quick breads, and cakes, roughly cup for cup, and it makes them noticeably moist. Latkes want applesauce on the side, and so does pork schnitzel.

Discover More Instant Pot Recipes

• Instant Pot Mac And Cheese
• Instant Pot Corn On The Cob
• Instant Pot Pork Chops With Mushroom Gravy
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Instant Pot Yogurt
• Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats