Freezer friendly applesauce is a great way to preserve your apple haul when they are in season!
Applesauce is great all on it's own or can even be frozen and then used in baking all year round.
Making and freezing homemade applesauce is surprisingly easy, and this way you can control the ingredients and the quantities that go into it, all while stocking your freezer with individual portions for snacks, dessert, and cooking!
What You Need for Applesauce:
- Apples - this recipe uses a mixture of sweet Gala apples and tart Granny Smith apples, but any apple type will work.
- Brown Sugar - Apples come in a variety of sweet and tart levels so, if you like a more tart apple sauce, scale back on the sugar, and likewise, if you want a sweeter taste, increase the brown sugar.
- Vanilla Extract
- Water
- Cinnamon - fresh ground is best, but just use what you have!
- Lemon Juice - as apples cook down, they lose their natural acidity. This helps enhance the flavor of your cooked-down apples. Don't have lemon juice, use any citrus you have - even orange juice will be ok to use here.
Our Homemade Applesauce Freezer Recipe:
The beauty of making applesauce is it's simplicity. You will never purchase applesauce from the grocery store after this!
When making applesauce, most of the work is in the first step. After that, the rest is easy!
- Peel, core and chop the apples.
- Add all of the ingredients to a large pot and allow the apples to cook down.
- Allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes.
- Use a potato masher or hand blender to blend and stir the applesauce to a perfectly smooth consistency.
- The applesauce is now ready to eat, or ready to go into your Souper Cubes to freeze.
Making homemade applesauce is that easy!
How to Freeze and Thaw Applesauce:
Once applesauce is cooked down, it is as simple as transferring your fresh applesauce to your Souper Cubes trays. To prevent condensation from freezing on your apple sauce, you want to allow the applesauce to cool completely before placing the lid on the tray and placing it into the freezer.
After about 6 hours, the frozen applesauce cubes can be removed from the trays and transferred to labeled freezer bags or a freezer-safe container.
Once frozen and popped out of your Souper Cubes trays, and transferred to freezer bags, it will last up to 6 months in the freezer - even longer if it is vacuum sealed!
To thaw, remove the cube of applesauce from the freezer, and place into a bowl. Then place the bowl into the fridge to thaw. If using applesauce for baking, you can microwave it for about 5 minutes (will depend a bit on your microwave) to thaw it right from frozen.
Ways to Use Applesauce:
- Applesauce can be used as an ingredient for things like:
- applesauce muffins
- applesauce oatmeal
- applesauce pancakes or waffles!
- Applesauce is often used as an oil replacement in baking recipes. You can swap out oil for applesauce in a 1:1 ratio. If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil, you can use 1/2 cup of applesauce instead!
- Applesauce is also a great snack to enjoy as is.
We love homemade applesauce, and know you will too! Check out our other freezer-safe recipes to discover some helpful tips and tricks, learn how to save freezer space, and gain more ideas on recipes you can make for yourself, friends, family and kids!
We would love to hear your ideas or better yet, post a photo of your cubes organized in our Freezer Meals & Recipes Facebook Group!