Canning Recipe - Applesauce with Pineapple Tomatillos

Last weekend, Anastasia had sent us away with two bags full of green apples from her tree. All week they had been sitting on the table begging me to do something with them. I had never canned applesauce and had my eye on an applesauce recipe from one of my canning books, but just didn't find the time during the week. Last night I sat down with knife and peeler and went to work.


12 pounds cored, peeled, chopped apples
6 cups pineapple tomatillo puree
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice


First thing you do is put a pot of 12 cups of water with 3/4 cup of lemon juice in front of you. As soon as you cut up each apple throw it in the pot. This reduces the browning of the apples. Once you have 12 pounds of apples cut up (I weighed before cutting, then threw in three more apples to make up for the core and skin). As you're cutting up the last apple you stop and hold still for just a minute because you think you heard something. You did! What you heard was that colander full of pineapple tomatillos calling your name. The ones you thought maybe you'd dehydrate, but were still undecided about. Hmmm... the recipe says to put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot of apples so they don't burn when you put them on the stove. Water? Water is tasteless.



What about pineapple tomatillo puree instead?



So once the apples are all cut up, puree a bunch of pineapple tomatillos until you have about 6 cups. Drain the water and lemon juice from the apples and dump in the puree, then put on medium heat. Stir frequently so none of the apples burn. Depending on the type of apple and size of the chunks, it could take 5-20 minutes for the apple chunks to soften. When they're soft enough, pour them into food processor. Once you have them at the consistency that you like, dump them back into the pot and keep it on low to medium to keep everything hot while you jar it. It was awesome just like it was, but I added 1 cup of sugar and it went from awesome to incredible. The sugar really brought out the flavor of the tomatillos! You also need to add 4tbsp of lemon juice to help the apples keep their color and to add acidity for processing.


We got 4 1/2 quarts in this batch. Process the jars in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.


My applesauce turned out really chunky as you can see from the picture, but this is the way we like it. If you like runnier sauce you might want to add some apple juice or water. Just be sure to reheat to boiling before jarring.





Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have another "lucky" kitchen moment. OMG, this was the best applesauce I have ever had!! Glenn agreed and armed with two spoons we quickly polished off about a pint before even canning it.