Weekly Dish

Or maybe it is. What do I know? Well, I’ll tell you. I do know that three types of apples are on Sweetnicks‘ list of the top twenty most antioxidant-rich foods: Gala, Red Delicious, and Granny Smith. And I know that ever since Ina Garten’s recipe convinced me, applesauce is my very favorite thing to make with a bushel o’ apples.

Before Ina, I never even thought about making my own applesauce. I’d never had any that was homemade, and who eats applesauce besides third graders anyway? And, then my Aunt Prissy gave me The Barefoot Contessa, and my applesauce prejudices dissolved right into the casserole dish with the apples. The texture of the sauce is perfectly chunky-smooth, and the spices add just the right complexity and depth to the apple-citrus combo. Plus, with all of those apples and the juice and zest from 4 other pieces of fruit, it has to have some kind of nutritional punch, right?

Yes, okay, so it has a little butter in it. But I substitute cane syrup for most of the sugar, and I bet that honey would also work. Butter and sugar aside, applesauce still contains all of the vitamin-y goodness of the fruit it’s made of. This batch made a lovely side to go with our roast chicken last night, and it will be the perfect, antioxidant-rich snack for at least another week. Besides, doesn’t it look pretty in the little mini-goblet my mom got me for Christmas?

Homemade Applesauce
based on Ina Garten’s recipe in The Barefoot Contessa

2 oranges, or 4-5 satsumas, tangerines, or clementines, zest and juice
2 lemons, zest of both, juice of 1 (I used Meyer ones)
6 tart green apples, like Granny Smith, peeled and cored
6-8 sweet red apples, like Gala or Red Delicious
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 cup cane syrup (could probably substitute honey)
1 stick butter
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. nutmeg, freshly grated if you have it

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the peeled, cored apples into a large casserole dish. Zest and then juice the lemons and oranges directly into the dish with the apples. Sprinkle the apples with the brown sugar; add the syrup or honey. Cut the butter into pats, and scatter them around the apples. Sprinkle in the spices. Bake, covered, for about an hour and a half, making sure to stir every half hour or so. Serve warm or cold; makes about 2 quarts of sauce.

tagged with: recipes food cooking posted for: ARF Tuesdays

Posted: Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pm Filed under: Something Sweet, On the Side, Snacks, Sauces and Condiments, Food Blogging Events, Comfort Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.