Applesauce Adventures

The Cranberry Chronicles, Part 1

Ever walk by the flavored applesauces in the grocery store and wonder:
"How can I make that myself?"

Probably not. But I have. Maybe it's because I grew up with my Bobby making the most wonderful cinnamon applesauce every year for Pesach (Passover), but for some reason store bought applesauce is not as awesome as homemade applesauce. So after spending a few months of my marriage buying applesauce, I decided enough is enough! I have to make it.

And at first I was happy just putting apples, water,  and sugar into a pot. But then came the cookbook: Fresh and Easy Kosher Cooking by Leah Shapira had a recipe for strawberry applesauce. Which I just had to try. It was eye opening. Then came the pears. Prince Charming has pears for breakfast most mornings, but there were some that were too squishy to eat, and in leu of throwing them away, I decided to make applesauce with them.

Into the pot went the pears and the apples (and all the other ingredients) and voila! Something amazing was born. And I was inspired.

What else can I put into a pot of apples?

So, I've been sitting on this idea for a few weeks now. We need to maintain the applesauce consistency, but add things that change the flavor and color and make it exiting.  This week cranberries were majorly on sale in the grocery store and with the myriad of canberry-apple crisp and crumble and whatnot recipes out there, it occurred to me that the cranberry-applesauce might be really really good.

The Attempt:

1 apple

A bunch of Cranberries

Cover with water

Sugar to your heart's desire

Vanilla sugar

Capful of lemon juice

Cook, covered on medium flame until soft. Squish a bit with a spoon. 

Eat. 

The Verdict:

It needs tweaking. It's really good, and really tart. I think it needs more sugar, or perhaps no lemon juice because the cranberries are tart enough as it is. 

We'll be looking back at this one over the next few weeks (i.e.: So long as cranberries are on sale.) Once we get the proportions right, I think we might also need to experiment with different apple varieties. 

Hmmm. I'm getting really exited about this!