Name: Slow Cooker Apple Sauce Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 6 h
Total time: 6 h 15 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 8 medium apples (a combination of Gala and Jazz); 1 lemon peel; 1 tsp fresh lemon juice; 1 -3 inch cinnamon stick; 5 teaspoons light brown sugar (unpacked)

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I absolutely adore how fast this yummy Crock Pot applesauce came together. It’s seriously the easiest of all the slow cooker applesauce recipe I’ve ever tried. We have a lot of kids and go through a lot of applesauce!

I never run out of apple ideas, since they’re one of my favorite fruits. Honestly, there are so many different recipes using apples, you’ll find of lot of ideas that you can love. But this homemade applesauce is one of the best Easy Appetizer Recipes for this fun southern side dish you can slow cook while you work!

Let me show you just how easy it is to make this.

Crock Pot Applesauce

Ingredients Needed to Make Homemade Applesauce:

8 medium apples, now you can use Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples, but I prefer Gala and Jazz, if they’re store bought — if they’re fresh, I’ll take any variety of apples any way I can get it!
1 lemon peel
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 -3 inch cinnamon stick
5 teaspoons light brown sugar that’s unpacked–I know, how unusual?! But I promise, it works.
Slow cooker
Lemon zester
Blender or Potato Masher, depending on whether you want smooth or chunky applesauce (I have one of these and love it!)
Cooking Spray

How to Make Applesauce in a Slow Cooker:

Peel and core your apples how you normally would, nothing too fancy here.

Slice the apples thinly–the more thin the better, if you like a thin applesauce. For a more chunky applesauce, leave the slices thick. Once the apples are cored and sliced, I usually throw off a dash of added sugar and cinnamon, maybe a little lemon, while they’re in the bowl, to keep them from browning too much. Just a dash, mind you, is all that’s needed for this easy crockpot applesauce recipe

With a vegetable peeler, zest about 1/4 teaspoon of your lemon peel. You don’t need a lot, but you do need a bit.

Juice the lemon, microwaving it, if you need to, to get more juice. We only need 1 teaspoon, but sometimes microwaving a lemon for 10-15 seconds or rolling it on the counter with your elbow seems to make more juice magically appear.

Lightly spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking oil.

Pile all of the apple slices into your slow cooker. That’s right, just pile ’em in there, in a big heap.

On top of the apples, just toss-in the cinnamon stick, the lemon peel, fresh lemon juice, and brown sugar.

Then mix the ingredients together by stirring a bit. Not every piece of every apple needs to be coated, but it won’t hurt if it is.

Turn the slow cooker on low and set a timer for 6 hours. Be sure to stir at least once every hour and enjoy the fact that your house smells amazing.

Remove the cinnamon stick. You don’t want to leave that in there.

Then, to make a more chunky applesauce, place your mixture into a bowl and gently mash a little with a potato masher or spoon back to the desired consistency. For a less-chunky applesauce (also known as a smooth applesauce), place in a blender or use an immersion blender to make the applesauce smooth.

Cool completely before placing in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. Or you can serve immediately for a fun side dish all warm and tasty. Your choice. But you’re not living if you haven’t had warm, fresh homemade applesauce before.

You can actually can your applesauce for longer storage by putting it in jars and going through the canning process, but since this is only 12 servings you would want to double the recipe (or even triple it) if you want to can it.

Did you know you can also use your Instant Pot as a slow cooker? It does have that option. I love my 8 quart Instant Pot since we are a larger family.

Also, remember, anytime you are cooking in your slow cooker you do not want to take the lid off and keep checking whatever is cooking. This goes for things like applesauce and things like dinner recipes. Every time you take the lid off you add 20 minutes of cooking time. Make sure you check out all of my slow cooker tips.

Is Applesauce Good for You?

It is! Because it has a lot of pectin in it, it is great for digestion. Have you ever hear of the BRAT diet? Often times when kids get a stomach bug and they are slowing able to hold down food bananas, rice, applesauce are great foods to start with that are not hard on the tummy.

Can Applesauce Be Frozen?

Yes! If you are worried your applesauce will go bad before your family can eat it, store it in a freezer safe container for up to 2-3 months.

Defrost it on the counter and then refrigerate.

Can Applesauce Replace Eggs in a Recipe

Yes! You can use 1.4 of a cup of applesauce for 1 egg. It’s a great substitution. It is best that you use non-flavored applesauce.

Substitute Applesauce for Oil

You can. When using applesauce as a substitute for oil, you want to do equal parts. So, if your recipe called for 1 cup of vegetable oil, for example, you can instead use 1 cup of applesauce. Imagine the pancakes, muffins, cakes and more that you can make using this homemade applesauce!

Can Applesauce Replace Butter

It can! If you are baking and the recipe calls for butter and you do not have any, you can use applesauce instead. Again, like the oil, it will be equal parts. If the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, you can instead use 1 cup of applesauce. One thing to keep in mind is going this route will cause the final baking result to be more dense than using the butter.

Does Applesauce Go Bad?

Just like anything you purchase, you want to ensure store bough applesauce is used by the date on the container.

That said, if you make the applesauce homemade, following this recipe, as long as it is stored in the fridge in an airtight container it will be good for 1-2 weeks. If you won’t use it fast enough you can totally freeze it!

How Do You Store Homemade Applesauce?

You can either store it in jars or an airtight food safe container.

Love to bake in the Fall? Here are 30 of our favorite desserts for this time of year. This is an instant download which means you can start making the recipes immediately!