Applesauce a la Slow Cooker

After making the Dulce de leche apple pie, I was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of the apples. I'd never made applesauce before and I heard it was easy to do in the crockpot. I did a search for slow cooker applesauce recipes and found ones I liked at year of slow cooking and Frugal Girls. I copied the bits I liked from each recipe and adjusted the amounts to fit our taste preferences and the amount of apples I had on hand.

I have to remember to include Blockette more in the kitchen. Lately she has been begging me to "teach her how to cook." Often, I exclude her because I'm in a rush, or the food prep is all chopping with knives sharp enough chop off all or part of your finger, or all done over the stove. Right now she is still to short to do any stove top work, and I don't feel comfortable having her stand on a stool in front of an open flame. That just screams fire hazard to me.

This recipe was a perfect way to put her to use as my mini sous chief. While I peeled and cored the apples, she cut them. She was very excited because I let her use a "sharp" steak knife. I'd forgotten how great the kitchen was for teaching math. Cutting the apples gave me the chance to talk to her about the difference between halves, thirds and fourths. It must have made a big enough impression because it was all she could talk about to Mrblocko at breakfast the next morning.I'm not sure why this applesauce turned out so RED! Maybe it was the cinnamon? The type of apples or a combination of the two? Either way it was a fun change from the pale yellow version we get from the store. Will I be making this recipe again? Yes, yes yes, a thousand times yes. Not only was it a great way to use up extra apples, but it made the whole house smell like apple pie for several days!

Crockpot Cinnamon applesauce
8 med apples
1/2 c water
up to 1T cinnamon (use 1 tsp if you are not a cinnamon freak like us)
1 t vanilla
1T Br sugar
2T lemon juice

Peel, core and chop your apples. Dump everything in the crockpot. Cook for 4 hrs on high. The apples should mash easily with a fork when they are done. So when they are done, get to mashing. I got 3 generous cups of sauce, but yours may vary depending on the size and type of apples you use. I've heard this freezes well, but I didn't make enough to need to freeze it.