We’re still perfecting our sourdough sandwich bread this week, but thought we’d slide in a super simple swap my youngest daughter loves….applesauce. My little M is four and loves applesauce any time of the day. We are accustomed to purchasing the applesauce pouches for convenience, especially for packing in her lunch. Why have we never made our own applesauce before??

I purchased an extra bag of Honeycrisp apples at the store this week so we’d have one for snacking and one for applesauce. The apples were on sale for $2.99 for a 3-lb bag, so a small investment if the applesauce didn’t turn out. My little M has typically been eating unsweetened applesauce, so we decided to try out the most basic recipe we found….apples, water, and a pinch of salt.

We used our apple divider to chop each apple into slices and remove the core, and oldest M rough chopped the slices. We purposely left the peel on, but that is a personal preference. Add the apples and 2 cups of water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then leave to simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or so. The apples will be soft. Mash with a potato masher if you like chunky applesauce, or use an immersion blender for smoother applesauce. My little M likes smooth applesauce, so the immersion blender was the tool for us. Blend until desired consistency, and applesauce is complete! Check out the comparison below to see if you think this is worth swapping from store-bought!

Comparison Chart

Our $2.99 apples made 72 oz of applesauce, and only took us 20 minutes to complete. Compared to the $5.99 I was paying for 12 3.2 oz pouches, I’m considering this a successful swap from store-bought!