Although we can buy a jar of applesauce in some supermarkets, it doesn’t come cheap, and might even contain unnecessary extra ingredients. Thankfully, you can easily make your own homemade applesauce (read how it’s done at the bottom of the article). While you can enjoy it on its own, applesauce is also made versatile for both sweet and savoury recipes. Below are the 10 Delicious Ways To Use Applesauce.
1) Top Your Vanilla Ice Cream With Warm Applesauce
Got a tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer? Instead of having the ice cream on its own, why not add some applesauce as a topping? It’s easy to do. Just heat 1/2 cup of applesauce with some brown sugar and cinnamon powder, where the amount of the latter two can be adjusted according to your taste preferences. Leave it warm and then pour the applesauce all over the cold vanilla ice cream.
2) Make A Grilled Applesauce Sandwich
Substitute the usual melted cheddar cheese with applesauce for a change for your grilled sandwich. It gives you a nice balance of sweet-and-savoury taste of applesauce and butter. Just grill like how you do your grilled cheese sandwich until the bread becomes lightly browned and toasted. Cut into half or quarters or whatever your heart desires, enjoy! Alternatively, you can even upgrade your grilled applesauce sandwich by spreading peanut butter on one side and applesauce on the other prior to the grilling process.
3) Level Up Your Applesauce With Added Strawberries
Why just settle on just applesauce when you can mix and match it with another fruity ingredient, namely strawberries? According to Fox Valley Foodie, making strawberry-applesauce is pretty much as straightforward as your regular homemade applesauce.
You only need a few ingredients — four, to be exact — for this recipe: apples, strawberries (with leaves removed, of course), freshly-squeezed lemon juice and a cup of water. Then, the rest of the cooking process is similar to how you make your own applesauce.
4) Ditch The Chocolate, Make Applesauce Brownies
When it comes to brownies, the main ingredient has to be chocolate. But what if you are say, allergic to chocolate? Well, we found this apple-licious recipe from The Big Man’s World that requires only 3 ingredients. And best of all, this doesn’t involve any baking process whatsoever.
The ingredients include:
- 1/2 cup of coconut flour (sifted)
- 3/4 cup of applesauce (preferably unsweetened)
- 1/2 cup of coconut palm sugar
Start by combining the first two ingredients above and mix them well. Then, add the applesauce and continue mixing until you get a thick batter. Pour the batter on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. You can top them with some cinnamon or coconut palm sugar if you want to. Place the tray in the refrigerator for 1 hour or so or at least until the brownies become slightly firmed-up. Finally, cut them into smaller pieces and there you have it, homemade applesauce brownies.
5) Layer Your Applesauce In A Parfait Style
Ever tried making a parfait before? Just grab a glass jar or a bowl and start by layering the bottom, say with Greek or low-fat plain/vanilla-flavoured yoghurt. Then top it with some applesauce as the second layer, followed by granola or any nuts of your choice. Spread another thick layer of yoghurt and top with more granola if you prefer. Perfect for breakfast or dessert.
6) Turn Your Applesauce Into Smoothie
Make use of your homemade applesauce by incorporating it into a smoothie. Get a blender and here is one of the delicious smoothie recipes you can try here:
- 1/2 cup of applesauce (unsweetened or sweetened)
- 1 cup of chopped strawberries
- 2 chopped frozen bananas
- 1/2 cup of low-fat/Greek yoghurt (plain or vanilla)
- 1 tablespoon of honey (especially if your applesauce doesn’t have any sweetener)
- A few ice cubes
Combine every ingredient into the blender and process for up to 1 minute or at least until everything becomes smooth. Adjust the sweetness if desired. And that’s it! Pour your homemade applesauce smoothie into a glass and enjoy!
7) Honey, It’s Time For Applesauce French Toast
Honey is often the preferred sweetener for French toast. But why not switch it up with applesauce for a change? All you need is:
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 1/2 cup of low-fat milk
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
- 2 slices of white or whole-wheat bread
Combine the eggs, milk, cinnamon, sugar and applesauce in a bowl and mix well. Then soak the bread one at a time until both sides are blanketed with the egg batter. Heat the pan and lightly grease with butter or cooking oil. Grill the bread on both sides until they become golden brown. Serve hot.
8) Mix Applesauce With Oat In The Muffins Recipe
Forget about the typical store-bought muffins since you can easily make them at home. And they are healthy too, especially with this applesauce oat muffins recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch. As for the ingredients, you’ll need:
- 1 1/4 cups of rolled oats
- 1 1/4 cups of unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons of butter (melted)
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 cup of whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
- 1/4 teaspoons
- 1/2 cup of raisins or chocolate chips.
Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F. Grab a 12-cup muffin tin lined with muffin liners. Alternatively, you can grease the tin with nonstick cooking spray and set it aside. Next, combine the following ingredients — oats, applesauce, milk, egg, butter, vanilla extract and sugar — in a bowl and whisk them well. Using another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, raisins/chocolate chips). Then, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the applesauce mixture. Stir until combined.
By using a spoon, scoop the batter and spread them evenly into each muffin cup. Place the tin into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. To determine whether your muffins are ready, simply insert a toothpick in the centre of a muffin. If it comes out clean, you are good to go. Once done, place the tin on a cooling rack and let them cool before serving.
9) Make Applesauce Cookies
Chocolate chips cookies, butter cookies… but how about applesauce cookies? They may not be popular compared to the aforementioned two examples. Still, it’s worth trying if you are looking for some crumbly apple-licious bites. Gather these ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 8 tablespoons of (softened) unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce
Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F and line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Next, using a small bowl, whisk the following dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon) until everything combined.
Then, grab another bowl to beat the softened butter and sugar with a hand mixer for 3-5 minutes. Add an egg and continue beating the batter for another 1-2 minutes or at least they become light and fluffy. Transfer the flour mixture and applesauce into the wet ingredients and beat until combined for around 1 minute. Use a cookie scoop to scoop each batter and place them on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Bake the cookie dough for 12-15 minutes. Once done, remove the sheet and allow them to cool on a cooling rack before serving.
10) Stir In Applesauce Into Your Oatmeal
Your usual oatmeal doesn’t have to be boring. Just cook your oatmeal as usual. Once boiled, reduce the heat to low and slowly stir in applesauce (preferably unsweetened) and some cinnamon. For the latter, simply adjust according to your taste preference. Cook on low heat and remember to keep stirring until it reaches your desired texture around 5-7 minutes top. To brighten up your applesauce oatmeal, you can consider topping it with a few slices of apples.
Now that we have covered a few suggestions on what you can do with applesauce, making applesauce itself is easy-peasy.
All you need is a few apples of your choice (you may want to consider Fuji or Pink Lady) and a cup of water. Core and slice them into pieces (you can remove the skin, even though they actually pack the most fibre) and bring to a boil over high heat in a pot of water. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes until the apples become soft. Next, you can either puree the apples using a blender or an immersion blender to turn them into applesauce. Store your applesauce in a glass jar with a lid and refrigerate it, which can last 7-10 days.
