A small-batch applesauce for the week after apple picking. Apples, Manuka honey, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Sweet, a little sharp, and warm enough to eat from the jar.
We never come back from the orchard with a plan. The bag is heavier than it looked in the field, a few are bruised, and somebody already ate the pretty one in the car. This is what I make with the rest.
It is not a dessert sauce and it is not a baby puree. It is the jar that sits on the counter for a few days and gets used on everything. Toast in the morning. Pork chops later in the week. A spoonful next to a sharp cheddar when the kids are circling the kitchen before dinner. The vinegar keeps it from tasting flat. The honey is there, but it does not take over. Clove and ginger do the work cinnamon usually does alone.
Manuka is the honey I use when I want it to taste like honey, not just sweet. A little goes a long way. If you only have wildflower or whatever is in the cupboard, use that. The sauce will still be good.
What you need
About 3 pounds of apples, a mix is better than one kind. Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, whatever came home in the bag. A couple of tarter apples keep it from turning to candy.
- 2 tablespoons Manuka honey, plus more at the end if you want it
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 whole cloves, or a small pinch of ground clove
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup water
Peel or don’t. I peel about half and leave the rest. The skins give it color and keep it from looking like it came from a pouch. Core them and cut into chunks. No need to be neat.
How to make it
Put the apples, water, vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a heavy pot. Cover and set it over medium heat. Once it starts to soften and smell like the kitchen in October, turn it down and let it go for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then so the bottom does not catch. The apples should slump when you press them.
Fish out the whole cloves. Mash with a potato masher if you want it rustic, or blend if you want it smooth. I mash. We like it with a little texture.
Take it off the heat and stir in the Manuka honey. Taste it. If the apples were very tart, add another teaspoon. If they were already sweet, leave it. The honey should round it out, not turn it into dessert.
Cool it in the pot, then move it to a jar.
How we actually use it
On buttered toast, still warm. Spooned next to pork or chicken. Stirred into oatmeal on a cold morning. Warmed and poured over a plain sheet-pan cake if that is what the day calls for. The older kids eat it cold from the fridge with a spoon, which I pretend not to see.
It keeps in the fridge for about a week. It also freezes well in small containers if the bag was bigger than the week.
A few notes if you make it again. Do not skip the vinegar. It is the thing that makes this taste like apples and not like cinnamon sugar. Go easy on the clove. Two is enough for this pot. And if you are using Manuka, add it at the end so you are not cooking the flavor out of an expensive jar.
