Wednesday, September 26, 2012

No Cook Fresh Applesauce





There was most certainly a time in my life when I had no appreciation or rather understanding of applesauce. I remember watching my uncle eating applesauce for dessert one evening and being completely at a loss as to why one would want applesauce for dessert when one could opt for, let's say..chocolate chip cookies and ice cream? But as I began to discover vegan and low fat baking (in which apple sauce tends to be a staple ingredient) I found myself finally appreciating the delicate sweetness of homemade applesauce. 

Now what are the advantages of making homemade applesauce, rather than just, running to the market and picking up a nicely pre-packaged bottle of the stuff? Well here are three awesome ones: 

1) Homemade applesauce doesn't have any preservatives...and well, I think we can all agree that is a good thing. 
2) Homemade applesauce is not loaded with sugar, like many supermarket brands.
3) Homemade applesauce just tastes better, especially if you are using freshly picked apples (YUmalicious ladies and gents!) 

On this note:  Any of you who have gone apple picking will likely have noticed something special about freshly picked apples. Okay, so there is a lot of specialness going on, but the main thing that struck me the first time that I went apple picking was that the stems of the apples were in fact green. And... get this... they stayed that way for 3 weeks! So what does this tell us about the brown stemmed apples we usually find in the supermarkets?  They're probably not exactly fresh.... though perhaps not as scandalous as the "fresh raspberries" for sale here in the market across the street... it's not summer anymore my dears!   


Well anyhow, enough gushing on homemade...RaWw Applesauce! 





Raw Applesauce
Ingredients: 

1 Granny Smith Apple (Lowest sugar) 
10 drops Nustevia (more to taste)
2 TBS Water 
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg (optional) 


1) Throw all of the above into the food processor (skin and all) and puree until smooth! 

Voila! So simple and easy! Now you can use this with various recipes later to come on Sweetly Free! It's amazing for baking and a wonderful guilt free dessert, topped with a little cashew whipped cream!