My secret for all natural, no sugar added applesauce is to use 2/3 sweet apples and 1/3 tart apples. The tart ones keep it from becoming sickeningly sweet like store bought and help keep it's consistency. Sweet apples tend to get softer quicker, the carbs changing to fructose causes the cell walls to begin to break down. The tart apples remain more crisp longer as their sugar content is lower.
Tart apples make the best pie or apple crisp filling. They retain their shape better when cooked under high heat and temperature during processing into cans.
By mixing various apple varieties, you can get a better apple flavor than with just one. I tend to use two different varieties of sweeter apples in my mix.
So here is the basic recipe for one canner load (seven quarts):
18 pounds of apples (6 pounds tart and 12 pounds divided between sweet apple varieties)
2 cups of water
7 tablespoons of lemon juice
Wash apples and rough chop them into chunks with peel still attached. I basically am chopping them to get the seed section out. I do worry about concentrating prussic acid when making apple sauce, the rest stays. As I chop, I drop them into a very large stainless pot with the water to keep the initial apples from scorching. Periodically use a potato masher to smash the apples as they soften and stir occasionally with a very long wooden spoon. As the apples soften and the pot fills, you will need to stir more often.
After about 30 - 60 minutes, depending on how small you chopped your apples, the mix will be ready to run through a food mill. I LOVE my Kitchen Aid mixer! Karl bought the food grinder attachment for me several years ago and it is fabulous. It grinds the apples and drops the pulp into a clean pan and sends the peels and hard core pieces out the other side. It makes it so much easier than hand grinding! It also mean I can leave the peels on while softening which releases more pectin into the product.
Return the now clean pulp to the stove and add lemon juice. This will keep the acidity up and color will be retained. If you used a lot of red apples, the color will be rosy. If you used more green apples, it will be more yellow with a green tint. I try to use both for the best color but it depends on what is ready at the time of picking.
Bring the mix to a boil, fill, and seal hot sterile quart jars. Process jars in a water bath for 20 minutes. Remove the canner lid and turn off heat for 5 minutes than lift jars out to a thick towel on the counter to completely cool.
Voila! It takes me about 2 1/2 - 3 hours from wash to counter for one load, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter depending if duty interrupts.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
When Time Gets Away From You
Where have I been?
Karl's parents came for a visit in early September. They requested that I not plan as much for them to do on their visits as last year. They wanted to spend time playing board games, riding bikes, and having the children give them mini recitals. We only went to one museum and Karl parents did take the children out for lunch to give Karl and I some "date" time. As they get older, having quality time to talk gets harder as the children want to stay up later cutting into our time. It was a good visit and we started our school year right after they left.
This year the children have moved up in their educational needs. Anton is pushing into Middle School and Isabella is on his coat tails. Stepping up their requirements has been a bit of a challenge mentally and physically. I really have to keep to my planning times this year as it can take me upwards of 1 - 2 hours for each week of schooling to be planned. This includes the library book look ups and requests but not the retrieval of them; this gets shoved in between errand or activity runs through town as the library is conveniently on our way or nearby most of our outings. This year also finds me dealing with the hormonal changing in a certain boy who is trying to learn how to deal with his sudden surges of testosterone. Sending him out to kick a soccer ball or some other physical activity to drain off that excess energy seems to be the best way to deal with those battles to insert his will. (I have found myself looking forward to my treadmill time to clear my head this year more so than I have in the past. Those books on CD or just plain Chant music on my MP3 player are very helpful at drowning out other stimuli while exercising.) Karl snickers when I stress about if they were pushed enough to not be behind their peers, when he comes home to finds them engrossed in a book or asking him technical questions (lately on atom splitting, or "if all things are made of molecules, and molecules are made of atoms, and atoms are made of electrons and neutrons, What are electrons and neutrons made of?" or "Can I use my microscope to see the atoms interact?"). When he points these things out, I have to laugh at myself because I know I was not thinking or asking these types of questions yet (grades 4 -5) and I was considered well above average. Isabella seems to be reading her way out of her level by wanting to check out and discuss Frankenstein, Journey to the Center of the Earth, or anything Shakespeare. Unfortunately, she has discovered that our library has graphic novels of these works which give her the story line but not the literary challenge. Age wise she should be 3rd grade, so what would you choose, a 70 - 100 page comic book or a 300 page, no pictures, standard novel. (By the way, they can only check out the Graphic Novels that are from Classical Literature. The others must be read in the library because they would not read any other books at home if they were available.) Oh, well, at least I can discuss some of my literary loves with her, like the moral question in Frankenstein, At what point is the creator responsible for the creation? I can save the other discussion points for later when she grows a bit and reads the "real" book, like Mary Shelley writing the novel when she was in postpartum and struggles with the emotions she put into Frankenstein's character.
In early October, we visited an apple orchard we had never been to before. We purchased 2 1/2 bushels of apples which was quickly turned into applesauce to last till next year. I had to do it quickly as I left the following weekend for my retreat. The retreat was great, a time to reflect without the stresses of everyday life. It helps to put things into perspective and spend quality time with God.
Currently soccer is in it's final week of the fall season. With cramming in life between soccer practice and games, it gets "juggly". Since Isabella decided to take a break from soccer and take up Jui Jitzu, our schedule is actually less stressful than previous seasons.
The children have continued with horse back riding, piano, cooking and Lego clubs. Isabella returned to Schuberts (Choir) and Anton has been camping with Karl and the scouts. Last weekend, Karl and Anton went to a Camporee with the Boy Scouts. Isabella was a bit disappointed she could not go (when it was Cub Scout Camping she was with them) but we spent the time sewing a sock doll craft she wanted to do from our Pioneer Studies. The boys were part of a Civil War reenactment in addition to camping. However, being the soccer assistant coach, I went to the site to retrieve my players for our game and returned them in time to shoot off wooden carved muskets Karl spent the better part of the week prior making. Karl had also worked diligently on two Arrow Of Light plagues for two of his Webelos who crossed over to Boy Scouts. They were beautiful and everyone commented favorably on his work. Actually two of the soccer dads at practice were asking for details, one of which is another Scout Leader.
And to add to the mix, Katie had a severe allergic reaction to something early last week. We had to spend about three hours calling the vet, getting squeezed into the schedule and then returning home to treat her for the next week. Her eyes swelled and she could not keep them open for long periods. She would use her other senses to find me, lay her head on my lap and keep her eyes squeezed shut. Anton was very concerned his dog was going blind, thus adding to the issues mentioned above. She is now recovered and back to her energetic, some what belligerent, self.
So Life has been busy. The garden is still producing, right now we are enjoying fresh spinach. And looking forward to the late fall and winter quiet.
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