Caramel Applesauce for Canning

If you’re an applesauce fan, you have got to try this simple caramel applesauce for a tasty twist on a classic snack.  This recipe is safe for canning so that you can enjoy it all year round!

If nifty DIYs are your thing, be sure to check out our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead.  If you’d like a sample of The Homestead Kitchen chapter, just shoot me an email through the site and I’ll get you hooked up.  I may even send along a little gift.  To learn more about the book, click below:  

Applesauce is in the Apples

First of all, you’ll want to pick a sweet apple for this recipe.  Something like a Jonagold will work well.  You can choose one with a little bit of a bite to it, but not too much.  To get that smooth caramel flavor, you don’t want something like a Granny Smith interfering with the flavor.

Applesauce is a great way to use up wormy, foraged or surplus apples.  Simply cut away any yucky parts, including seeds and core, and your imperfect apples will be put to good use.  This year, we used apples we foraged from an old homestead.  The house is long gone, but the land has all become a neighborhood park.  Here and there, you run into reminders that this place was once a thriving homestead.  There are random apple trees in obscure places and hidden herbs here and there.

For inspiration on how to use your applesauce once it’s made, check out these 6 Sweet & Savory Ways to Use Applesauce.

And, if you happen to have a few apples leftover, try making this amazing apple pie filling from Nitty Gritty Mama.

Coconut Sugar for that Caramel Flavor

The key ingredient in this recipe, apart from quality apples, is coconut sugar.  Rapadura, Succanat and even brown sugar will work to a degree.  You’ll see that we mixed a few of those sugars into the recipe to give it depth.  However, the best flavor will come from coconut sugar, in my opinion.  If you don’t have that, you can use rapadura or succanat – though I think they taste more maple-y than caramel-y.

Another thing to note is that the amount of sugar in this recipe is adjustable to your desired flavor.  Apples are acidic enough to safely water bath can on their own.  Simply Canning can tell you how to make regular applesauce with or without added sugar – click here to learn how.

Recipe for Caramel Applesauce for Canning

This applesauce has a deep, rich flavor reminiscent of caramel, while still maintaining a bit of the bite of a fresh apple.

Print Recipe

Recipe for Caramel Applesauce for Canning

This applesauce has a deep, rich flavor reminiscent of caramel, while still maintaining a bit of the bite of a fresh apple.  It is so rich and flavorful that you'll think you're eating a melted caramel apple!

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: applesauce, canning recipe, caramel apple

Ingredients

• 20 medium apples or about five pounds
• 2 cups coconut sugar to taste
• 1/2 cup Succanat or Rapadura to taste; can also use organic brown sugar, but it's not as flavorful
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

1. Wash, core and quarter apples.  Retain cores to make apple cider vinegar - click here to learn how.
2. Cook the apples over medium heat until they're soft in a large stock pot with about an inch of water on the bottom.
3. Allow the apples to cool.
4. Puree the apples in your blender or food processor, pouring the puree back into your stock pot.
5. Add the sugars and spices, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and evenly distributed.  Allow to sit for at least twenty minutes so the flavors can mellow.  Taste test.  Add more sugar and spice if necessary.
6. Reheat the puree in the stock pot.
7. Prepare your canning jars, seals and lids and process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.  Remember to adjust time for your altitude.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

If I'm using this caramel applesauce as a snack food for the kids, I add less succanat or raw sugar. 

If I'm going to use this as an ice cream topper or as a sweet add-on to our Rosh Hashanah latkes, then I add a bit more sugar to make that caramel flavor pop.  Either way, this caramel applesauce is truly tasty.  

We're not Jewish, but we have so much fun celebrating this time of year along with our Jewish friends.  And any excuse to make this caramel applesauce and latkes is happily made use of.  Shanah Tovah, my friends!

Leftover Apples?

If you have more apples leftover, try this recipe for Apple Pie Jam from Timber Creek Farm.  Tell me how it is because I really want to try it!

Also, I really want to try making apple sugar this year, which Learning and Yearning explains how to do in this post.

Plus, there’s always using apple scraps to make apple chips and even light apple cider vinegar – you can learn to do both here.

If you have a solar oven, save some money and make your apple chips in it for free.

Still have leftover apples?  Try any of these ideas from Schneider Peeps – there’s just about every way to preserve apples outlined here.

Applesauce Canning with Kids

Applesauce is certainly something that an older child can handle making on their own.  Water bath canning is very straightforward.  The fruit preparation is simple, as along as a child has been taught proper knife skills.

It’s fun to taste test together and chat around the stock pot, but be sure to let your older children do this as much as they can on their own.  Be sure to go over altitude/processing time adjustments with them as you both get the canner set up.  It’s good to be in the kitchen for that part just to be sure everything is in order.

To learn more about teaching kids to can safely, check out The National Center For Home Food Preservation’s free program for kids called Put It Up.

Incidentally, this caramel applesauce makes a fantastic teacher or youth leader gift.  My daughter left for her youth activity at church tonight with four pints of this applesauce tucked into her bag to give as gifts to her leaders.  That girl’s been raised right, if I do say so myself.

For more gloriously unique and tasty canning recipes, be sure to check out my friend Kathie’s book below:

Free Sample

Don’t forget to email me for that free sample from The Do It Yourself Homestead!  We hope the book will be of use to you, but don’t just take our word for it.  Here’s what chef and cookbook author Stacy Lynn Harris had to say about the book: