Crock Pot Strawberry Applesauce

With the onset of fall we always enjoy getting our first round of apples. Even though we’ve exhausted ourselves making and eating applesauce we had never tried our hand at making any kind of mixed fruit sauces. Now don’t get me wrong, Miss Maddy and her daddy will demolish the little six pack of strawberry applesauce that I buy at the grocery store. That’s what gave me the inspiration to give it a try. Had I know how easy and how delicious this crock pot strawberry applesauce was going to be I would have made this A LOT  sooner. Miss Maddy was able to help prepare for the cooking and she helped with the blender afterwards (cause we like it smoother…. we’re cool like that!). Definitely going to be making another batch for the freezer.  
  Here is how I did it: 
Ingredients:

• 2 cups of frozen whole strawberries, thawed (a 16 oz. package will work perfectly)
• 10 cups of apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• juice of 1 lemon
• white granulated sugar (as needed after tasting)
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Place berries, apples and lemon juice in 5 – 6 quart crock pot.
2. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
3. Scoop mixture into a heatproof blender, in small batches (Careful not to fill the blender too full, and always put a dish towel over the lid before pushing any buttons…. just to be safe. We don’t want anyone to get burned). Blend until desired consistency has been reached. Pour blender contents into large bowl. Continue until all contents of crock pot has been blended.  
4. Return contents of bowl back to crock pot, making sure you have turned it to low if you cooked on high.
5. Add cinnamon and stir to incorporate thoroughly.
6. Taste at this point to see if you need to add any sugar to sweeten. If you feel you do, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup at a time, stirring to incorporate completely and then tasting again before adding more.
7. Serve warm or put in airtight container and place in fridge. Should last for at least 3 days in fridge.

Notes:

• You could use an immersion blender and blend the contents right in your crock pot when the cooking process is done.
• If you don’t have lemon juice, any citrus juice will work. It is just added to help apples not to brown and to help break them down NOT for flavoring. I’ve used lime juice and orange juice with great success.
• If you have a food mill you could run the cooked mixture through it instead of using a blender.
• To freeze any of my applesauces, I just put them in a freezer container (Ball sells some nice ones) just making sure I leave 1 inch of room at the top of the container for expansion when contents freeze solid. If you don’t leave room at the top the container could explode. Now ask me how I know this!