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Easy Applesauce: Super-Smooth and No Peeling Required

Creamy Apple Sauce, No Peeling required

An easy applesauce recipe with no apple-peeling required. Even better, the result is a creamier, extra healthy apple sauce. Less work and tastier than ever – Double Win!

Did you know that you don’t have to peel apples to cook them? I put unpeeled apples in all kinds of recipes. The peel softens when the apple cooks and you barely notice that it’s there.

To Peel Or Not To Peel Apples?

But I still peel apples to make apple sauce. Or at least I did until last month. I had this big bushel of apples that I’d received from a client and I knew that they were going to go bad if I didn’t do something quickly. I decided to make apple sauce even though I didn’t have time for all the peeling. I cored the apples, sliced them, and put them in a covered pot in the oven.

If you think that the unpeeled apples in my recipes are due to laziness, you are correct. But they’re also due to health. It turns out that most of an apple’s nutrients are in its peel, including most of the fiber, vitamins and the obesity and cancer-fighting aspects of apples that have been in the news recently. So if given the choice between peeling and not peeling, I always go with the healthier easier route and leave the peels on.

For this recipe, it speeds things up and it yields a very healthy applesauce that my whole family loves.

Making Easy Applesauce

My plan had been to mash the cooked apples as usual and just pretend that the peel wasn’t even there. But after a lot of mashing, I wasn’t happy with the lumpy weird texture.

What to do? I put everything in the blender in batches. I used a high-powered blender (mine’s a Blendtec) so it really whipped it up. The result was an apple sauce with a smooth and creamy texture like pudding. If you don’t have a Blendtec or Vitamix or other crazy-powerful blender, try using a regular one but only fill it halfway full and add extra liquid in dribbles as you blend to really get it whizzing around.

If you were reading carefully you probably noticed that I made this applesauce in the oven rather than on the stove top. Why? I didn’t want to have to stir it often or worry about it sticking or burning on the bottom. By putting it in the oven all those worries go away. I stirred it once when pulling it out to check if the apples were soft enough yet. So simple.

You could also make this recipe in a slow cooker. Cook for 4-6 hours on high or until very tender. Then blend as described.

More Recipes With Apple

Podcast Episode About Making Applesauce

Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this applesauce, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:

Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.

Print

Creamy Easy Applesauce Recipe

  • Author: Christine Pittman
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Yield: 20 servings 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: American

DESCRIPTION

Super-smooth and creamy apple sauce that doesn’t require peeling the apples.
This recipe is baked in the oven and then pureed until very smooth in a high-powered blender. If you don’t have a high-powered blender, use a regular blender or food processor but only fill it half full and add dribbles of liquid to help it really whiz around to get a smoother texture. Yields 10 cups.


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 6 lbs. apples (about 12-15 medium apples), cored
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 4 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cloves (optional)
  • Lemon juice (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice the apples into about 10-12 slices each. Put them into a Dutch oven or large pot with lid along with the brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves (if using). Stir.
  2. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Stir. Cover and continue to bake until very soft, about 20-30 minutes more.
  3. Transfer some of the apples to a high-powered blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix, only filling it half full. Drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice. Puree until very smooth.
  4. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired. Transfer puree to a bowl and repeat in batches with remaining apples.

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This post originally appeared in October 2014 and was revised and republished in October 2023.