Canning with Brianna Vandehey
Enjoy a day at the farm gathering fresh-picked apples, then bring them home and make homemade applesauce with your own hands. A wonderful way to spend a few fall days cooking up good things in the kitchen, and extra wonderful when you can share the adventure with those you love. Check out Brianna’s easy and delicious take on the traditional Ball applesauce recipe featuring fresh squeezed lemon juice and no added sugar.
- 12 lbs apples, peeled, cored, quartered.
- 3 cups granulated sugar (optional) the amount of sugar is also optional
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- Weigh 12 pounds of apples after they are peeled, cored, and quartered.
- In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine the apples with about an inch of water. This is to prevent any sticking to the saucepan.
- Bring the apples to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally for 5 to 20 minutes. You will notice they are ready to puree once the apples are tender or softened enough.
- Let the apples sit off the heat for about 5 minutes. I use this time to have my jars and lids ready for the next steps.
- Add the tender apples to a food processor in batches. I use a blender; it works great and it makes for easy clean up. At this point, decide whether you want the applesauce smooth or chunky.
- After you are done blending your apple sauce puree, add it back to your saucepan.
- Add lemon and/or sugar. For me, I don’t use sugar with applesauce. Apples already have such sweet natural flavors, why add sugar? I add fresh lemon juice to preserve the sauce and it makes for a tasty all-natural applesauce.
- Bring the ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat. You will need to stir constantly to prevent sticking. Once it’s reaches a boil (this can take awhile), turn heat down to a gentle boil while filling your jars.
- Ladle hot applesauce into your jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Remove any air bubbles and wipe your glass rim. Carefully place the lid on the center of the jar then screw on the band until it is snug.
- [url href=”https://bdn.evermine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_3428.jpg”][img src=”https://bdn.evermine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_3428.jpg” width=”780″ height=”1170″ class=”alignnone size-full” title=”Canning with Brianna Vandehay”][/url]
- Your jars are full and you’re almost done with your first batch of applesauce! Place your jars in the water bath and make sure they are completely covered with water. Bring the water to a boil. Once the boiling processing starts, set your timer for 20 minutes. Check your jars during the boiling process in case you need to add water
- Once the time is up, let the jars cool. Remove the jars from the water bath with your jar lifters.
- I recommend letting them sit for 24 hours before wiping the jars down and loosening the bands.
Tip: Sugar is optional but lemon juice is not. Lemon juice is added to preserve the apples natural color and to ensure the acidity of the canned applesauce.
Packaging:
What you need:
- Labels – Apothecary Deluxe, Size 12, Siren
- Made just for you tag – Apothecary Deluxe, Size 1B, Siren
- Canned with love tag – Simple Edge, Size 23, Deep Red
- Canned applesauce
- Patterned twine. Note: White string is included with the tags. We saved these for another project.
Instructions:
- Order and personalize your tags and labels. Note: Size 12 labels fit small-mouth mason jars while size 11 labels fit wide-mouth jars.
- Place the label on the lid of the canned applesauce
- Take your patterned twine and wrap it around the jar 2-3 times. Thread the luggage tag through the twine and wrap it around one more time. Now thread the scallop tag. The the twine into a bow.
Credits:
Family photo: Stephanie K. Photography
Brianna Vandehey is an Office Manager at a Primary Care and Women’s Health Practice. When she’s not working she loves spending time canning, crafting, bargain hunting, traveling and planning for her upcoming wedding in Mexico!
Josephine Guicciardi is the nom de plume of our creative Evermine blogger. With romantic connections to Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved” love letters, it is in keeping with the blog’s themes of love and joy. The great composer writes the famous words “ever thine, ever mine, ever ours” to a woman who remains a mystery to this day. Two of the most likely objects of his adoration are Josephine Brunsvik and Guilietta Guicciardi, and it’s from these two women that Josephine Guicciardi draws her persona.
