Cooking with Apples, Part Deux (Updated)

I've had some leftover red delicious apples sitting in my fridge for a while now. I baked an amazing apple coffee cake with some, but I needed something else to finish off the rest of them. Thankfully, Rachel came to the rescue and told me how to make applesauce. Just boil some peeled, cored, and sliced apples and toss the results in a blender. Simple, right? Before you answer that question, have you ever seen me cook? Nothing is simple in my kitchen.

I bought a cheap apple corer to commemorate the occasion and promptly peeled the apples and sent them through the gauntlet of blades.

A close-up of the victims.
Since I can't follow anyone's directions (even my own; I've written down some of my recipes, but I never actually follow them), I decided to make flavored applesauce. The only things I had in the house (remember, we're moving soon) was some blueberry pomegranate juice and some frozen Maine blueberries. Blueberry applesauce it is!


I boiled four apples in a thin layer of the juice (around ¼ cup), then covered and simmered for almost half an hour. The smell was kind of bad, so I decided to sweeten them with around ¼ cup brown sugar. That's entirely optional, though.


Once that was done, I tossed the apples and some of the juice (leaving a small amount in the pot) into the blender. I threw some blueberries on top for good measure.


Blended it all together and it turned out beautifully.


If you can't see the texture, enlarge the photo. Trust me: it's perfect. And the taste (even though I've only had it warm) is quite delicious. Most importantly, for once, it actually was simple.

Tonight I'll be trying this ridiculously complicated black bread for a potluck at my wife's work. I've never worked with half the ingredients (shallots? really?), so wish me luck.

Update: after checking the cooled product, it thickened more than I anticipated. Suggestion: double the liquid base (you can use water, fruit juice, apple cider, apple juice, etc.) so you don't have to add apple butter and fruit juice to thin out your applesauce. Just an idea.