Still warm from the oven, this applesauce would make a great side to a fall dinner, even on a fall-feeling late summer day.
Left to rest in the fridge overnight and then enjoyed as you will, the flavors have blended and developed, and what I thought was mebbe a touch too much brown sugar has been mellowed with the cinnamon and ginger and ground cloves. Yeh, there may well be 1/4 cup of brandy in this applesauce, and any alcohol has been baked off, but this is not your momma’s applesauce!
Actually, it’s my mom-in-law’s recipe clipping from Martha Stewart, and it beats anything you may have tried from a supermarket shelf – and many from a farm market shelf, too.
INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup brandy or cider
•1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
•1/4 tsp ground cloves
•1/4 tsp ground ginger
•1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
•Zest of 1 lemon
•6 tbsp (3/8 cup) packed dark brown sugar
•2 tbsp unsalted butter
•3 Granny Smith apples
•3 McIntosh apples (I used Jazz apples)
•1/8 tsp salt
Heat oven to 375º.
Peel, core, and cut into apples into eighths.
Combine the brandy, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, lemon juice and zest, brown sugar, and butter in a large baking pan and allow the butter to melt.
Add the apples and toss to coat.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the apples are very soft and golden brown – mine took 45 minutes.
Transfer to a food processor (or, to a bowl and blend with an immersion blender) and pulse until smooth, then stir in the salt.
Ms Stewart says to serve this warm, but I really did find it a bit too sweet fresh from the oven. Much more better, I believe, to let it rest overnight and then serve it – go ahead and gently rewarm it, if you like, but I’m thinking this would be a welcome room temperature addition to lunch, or spread on toast for breakfast.
Note: I’d thought to mebbe can and save the applesauce in the pantry, but this recipe makes almost one pint, not really enough to bring out the canning pot. Got a lotta apples to use up and preserve? Yeh, this is your recipe.