Pink Applesauce

Fall is my favorite season, and the clean, crisp autumn air always makes me want to do one thing: apple picking. I’m not sure if it’s a hangup from childhood-perhaps it’s the overabundance of fall retail marketing schemes that gives me this sudden urge.  Even less clear is why I insist on picking in ridiculous quantities. Never mind that, though. The boy and I spent a clear, luscious Sunday at the orchard climbing, lugging, juggling, and carefully considering how to maximize our bushel. After loading our goods into the trunk (and just barely passing bag overfill inspection by some extremely scrupulous farmers), we plotsed ourselves down onto a bench in a sunny spot of the orchard.  The two of us shared a cool, sweet pint of homemade cider and a few hot, fluffy apple cider doughnuts, fresh from the fryer and gently yielding to the tooth in a delicious crunch of cinnamon sugar. If fall has a taste, that’s it.

Unexpected bonus: never had we inspired such fear and suspicion in my fellow outer-borough New Yorkers as when they saw us approaching with our bushel of shiny new produce.  ”Hark, it is the pale ones,” they said to themselves.  “But what of the crimson orbs the tall one carries?”  Or at least, this is what i imagine that they said-pedestrians passing by readily offered their comments, yet they were rarely in English.  Of course, the boy disagrees-he feels nothing but shame at what he assumes the Mexicans were saying about his apples between enthusiastic whistles.  And so, having had the full reality of just how many apples we had graciously driven home by our neighbors, I set to work making room in the refrigerator and brainstorming some applications.

Applesauce it was-but not the pale, sugary mess in a jar you might be used to seeing on store shelves. These apples didn’t need any sweetener at all-in fact, if you use a sweet, red, thin-skinned variety, you won’t even need to peel them, and you’ll have yourself a gorgeous pink applesauce that barely requires a recipe, perfect for freezing in batches, serving with crisp potato latkes or a roast, using in recipes, or just enjoying as is.

 

What did we do with the rest of the apples? A few are still taking up valuable refrigerator real estate, but some went toward a batch of Apple-Cherry Oatmeal Bars, others we’ve enjoyed as-is, and the rest went to 2 gallons of from-scratch Hard Apple Cider (the brainchild and pet project of the boy-updates to come in December, when it should be done fermenting and carbonating). 

So did our excess of apples teach me a lesson about letting fall fever cloud my judgment? Absolutely-if I could do it all over, I would have picked twice as many, and then I wouldn’t be making a trip back to upstate New York tomorrow for my second bushel of the season.

Pink Applesauce

Gather as many apples as you’d like to use, keeping in mind that you’ll end up with about a half cup of finished applesauce per apple that you use (I used 20 Cortland and froze the applesauce in pint-size containers). Wash the apples thoroughly; then quarter and core them. Put enough water into the pot to cover the bottom by 1/2 inch, and add your apples. Put a medium-high flame under the pot and occasionally stir up from the bottom to redistribute the apples. Cook until the apples are very soft, about 20 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool enough to safely handle, and then run it through the food processor until the skin is only visible as tiny red flecks in the sauce (alternatively, put it through a food mill). Cool the applesauce all the way, divide into containers, and refrigerate or freeze.