Easy Homemade Chunky Applesauce

Love apples and want to enjoy them year-round? You can make a delicious chunky applesauce and control how much sugar you add (or don’t) into the recipe. We’ve added cinnamon as well (optional also).

Making applesauce is similar to making apple butter. Apple butter is smoother and requires more sugar. Once you see how easy it is to make chunky applesauce, you will not use store bought applesauce again.

You can scale this applesauce recipe to what fits your family. If you want a large batch or a small batch of sauce, just adjust the portions. Keep in mind that the apples will break down and be about half the amount you have in your pan when it’s time to can. It takes a lot of apples to make apple sauce.

We made about 10 pints of apple sauce with this recipe, but we separated the apples and made half chunky and half regular.

Is There an Easy Way to Process the Apples?

We have a Kitchen Aid mixer with the peeling & coring attachment. This made processing the apples go quickly. If you have a peeler and corer, it will make things go quickly. You can always use a vegetable peeler and knife to process the apples. Be sure to put the apples in fruit fresh or lemon juice water to keep them from turning brown. Remove them from the water mix, before starting the recipe.

How Much Water is Added to Make Homemade Applesauce?

As little as possible. We used 9 pounds of apples and used a half cup to start. You want to keep the apples from burning as they break down. If you need to add more, that is fine, but you are not trying to make soup, it’s just enough, so it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

How Do You Make the Chunky Applesauce Recipe?

To make chunky applesauce, you need to leave some of the apples chunky. As the apples cook down, they will break down. You will need to use a food processor, blender or potato masher to help them liquify. Once they get to the chunky consistency you want, stop trying to make them smooth. If you want them completely smooth, that will be regular applesauce with no lumps.

Is Lemon Juice Optional to Make Apple Sauce?

Lemon Juice is needed to help bring the acidity up in the homemade applesauce. The lemon juice also keeps the apples from turning brown while you are processing.

What Are the Best Apples Used to Make the Best Applesauce?

Soft apples are used in making homemade applesauce. You can also use Granny Smith, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Honey Crisp or Mcintosh Apples. These apples are also great for making apple crisp, apple pie, and apple pie filling.

You can use a couple kinds of apples to mix and make your applesauce. We use Jonagold and Gala. If you are able to go to a local apple orchard, see what they have available for apple picking or on hand in your area. Our cider mill had baskets put together baskets for making applesauce with mixed apple varieties.

ground cinnamon and sugar in fresh applesauce

Can Applesauce Be Canned in a Water Bath?

Homemade apple sauce is easy to make. It does not require pressure canning because of the lemon added to bring up the acidity. This allows the applesauce to be water bath canned.

What Sugar is Used in Homemade Chunky Applesauce Recipe?

We use sugar and cinnamon in our homemade applesauce recipe. If you do not want to add sugar or cinnamon, you can skip adding them and follow the rest of the steps for this recipe. Make sure to taste your apples to ensure they are ripe and have the apple flavor you want for your applesauce. Use fresh apples that are washed and still something you would want to eat.

Can You Use Slow Cooker to Can Applesauce?

If you do not have time to make applesauce on the stovetop, you can put everything in a crockpot on low and have it cook all day. Once the apples breakdown, you can follow this recipe. I would suggest you are stirring occasionally because you don’t want the apples to stick or burn.

Print Recipe

4.50 from 8 votes

Homemade Chunky Applesauce

It's very easy to can chunky applesauce, you have to do it. Control the sugar and spices in your delicious homemade applesauce.

Prep Time1

Cook Time20

Course: Canning

Cuisine: American

Servings: pints

Author: Regina Sober

Equipment

Ingredients

9 pounds apples before coring & peeling
1-2 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

Was and drain the apples.
Take your peeler and peel, core and slice the applies.
If you are using a peeler, corer, you will want to cut your apple slices in half or quarter so they cook even.
Place the apples into a pot big enough to hold the apples you want to process.
Cook the apples on medium heat, putting in enough water to keep the apples from burning, but not making it soupy.
Start with adding 1/2 cup of water and add more if needed. As the apples soften, they will release water.
The apples with starts to change color, getting more translucent, this is them softening.
Once the apples are soft, you can place them into a blender and blend until smooth.
Place the mix back into the pot and add the sugar.
Heat the apple sauce to 212F and it's time to fill the jars.
Use your ladle and funnel and fill the jars, leaving 1/2" headspace from the top of the jar.
Remove any bubbles (if you add the apple sauce slowly, none should form.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean wet towel.
Place the seal and band on the jar hand tightening. Repeat for all jars.
Place the jar into a hot water bath and process jars for 20 minutes.
Remove jars from the water and place on a towel, covering the jar to allow it to cool slowly.
Label and date the jars before storing.