Vanilla Apple Sauce

I don't know if everyone knows this, but apple sauce? It is SO easy to make. Don't bother to buy it. Ever. It'll take you fifteen minutes, and be infinitely better than the store-bought version. I don't know what took me so long, because I just tried this very recently. Then again, I don't really eat a lot of apple sauce. Or I didn't. These past few weeks, I've had it on oatmeal porridge every morning!

I made this from hand-picked apples that a co-worker gave me, but apples from the store are of course perfectly fine. The less tart ones are better, as they generally fall apart a bit more. With harder apples, be prepared to cook them for a little bit longer. You can spice this up as much as you want, but I like using homemade vanilla sugar (you know, the kind where you stick a few vanilla pods in a jar of sugar and forget about it for a few weeks) and crushed cardamom. A cinnamon stick, whole cloves or star anise would also be nice.

Vanilla Apple Sauce

1 kg apples
50 ml water (3 tbsp + 1 tsp)
200-250 g homemade vanilla sugar
1 tsp crushed cardamom (optional)

Peel and core the apples. Cut into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the water. Cover with a lid, bring to boil, and then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The apples should be fairly soft. If you're using cardamom, put that in the pan as well, right from the start.

When the apples are soft, remove the pan from the heat, and with a wire whisk, whisk until the apples break up. Add the sugar and whisk some more. That's it! Pour into clean jars, and freeze the ones you won't use right away since these don't contain any kind of additives for preservation.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelmos med vanilj