Is homemade applesauce a lot more work than just buying it in the store? Of course, but it tastes so much better, that once you and your loved ones take a single bite you will forget how sore your hands are from all that peeling!
If you have a fruit grove, apple trees, or simply score a great deal on apples that you can dehydrate and save for a dessert treat, these recipes are for you!
And, as an added bonus, if you read all the way to the end, I might just share my grandmother’s top secret recipe for perfect pie crust/dessert dough recipe!
Homemade Applesauce
When our daughter was pregnant with her first child, she craved my homemade applesauce daily. It was a good thing I had plenty of it canned and stored in the root cellar. Apples are Colt’s favorite thing to eat, I like to believe my delicious treat had something to do with that!
Ingredients
• 6 pounds of apples
• Cinnamon to taste, about 1 tablespoon – optional
• Apple cider, apple juice, or water – just enough to cover
• ½ of a cup of brown sugar
Directions
1. Wash and peel the apples.
2. Core the apples.
3. Use an apple corer – slice to core and into 8 pieces
4. Dump the apples into a large pot.
5. Pour in just enough apple cider, apple juice, or water to cover the apples.
6. Pour both the cinnamon and the applesauce.
7. Turn the stove on medium heat and stir frequently.
8. The apples will soften during the heating process, and must continue to be stirred to avoid scorching. It typically takes about 25 minutes for the apple mixture to soften to the point that it looks like applesauce..
9. Allow the mixture to cool and enjoy.
Tips
You can dehydrate the applesauce and use it later to pour into muffin or pancake mixes for added flavor. The applesauce tastes incredible when used as a topping on homemade ice cream as well.
photo above: applesauce
Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
• 6 apples – peeled and cored
• ⅔ of a cup of softened butter
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 cups of brown sugar
• 2 and ½ teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• ½ cup of milk
• 2 cups of water
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ cup of butter – not softened
Directions
1. Combine the baking powder, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Pour in the softened butter and the milk.
3. Stir the mixture until a dough begins to form.
4. Divide the dough into 6 separate balls.
5. Roll out each of the balls – do this on a surface coated with flour so it does not stick.
6. Fill each flattened dough ball with enough apples so that they will fill the space when it is rolled back into a ball shape but not stick out the sides.
7. Place the apple dumplings into a baking pan. My grandmother skipped this step and simply mixed all of the ingredients together and dumped the dumplings briefly into boiling water and pulled them right back out. They taste absolutely perfect this way, and everyone always begged her to make dumplings, but it takes practice and a special knack to pull this off without the dumplings falling apart – that is why I am still forced to go the easy route and bake mine.
8. Bake at 350 F (177 C) for about 30 minutes – the top of the dumplings will be golden brown and the apples will be soft when they are done.
9. While the dumplings are baking, mix together the unsoftened butter, cinnamon, water, and brown sugar.
10. Pour the mixture into a small pan and heat on medium until they just start to boil – stir constantly.
11. Pour this mixture over the apple dumplings immediately upon removing them from the oven.
12. Allow the dumplings to cool enough so they do not burn your mouth, and enjoy.
Apple Roll Dessert
Ingredients
• At least 2 apples – Granny Smiths seem to taste best in this recipe
• 3 containers of crescent rolls – or make your own pie/pastry dough…remember, my grandmother’s top secret recipe might just be waiting for you at the end of this very article!
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 and ½ cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• About 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
Directions
1. Wash and peel the apples.
2. Core them and cut them into eight slices
3. Roll one apple slice inside each crescent roll triangular slice – or whatever fits without sticking out the sides.
4. Melt the sticks of butter in a medium pan
5. Pour the sugar into the pot.
6. Stir the mixture to keep it from scorching but barely combine the two ingredients – this is an important step!
7. Pour in the vanilla extract
8. Barely stir the ingredients again – the mixture should appear grainy and even somewhat lumpy.
9. Put the wrapped apples in a 9X13 baking dish that has been sprayed, so they will not stick.
10. Pour the hot mixture right over the apple wraps, making sure to coat them all liberally.
11. Pour in about a half of a can of soda pop – even though I am a huge Coke fan, Mountain Dew tends to make the dish incredibly moist and sweet.
12. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top of both the apple wraps and the liquid portion of the desert..
13. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes – until they are slightly golden brown on top.
14. Allow the apple wraps to cool enough to eat and then enjoy – these are destined to become a family favorite, I can almost guarantee it…even if you use generic store bought crescent rolls!
Grandma Corkie’s Pie Dough Recipe
My mother can bake or cook anything, except pie dough and divinity. I, on the other hand, spent many years as a feral wife. I burnt water indoors but was a gourmet when cooking outdoors – with the except of dough. Turns out I couldn’t ruin a homemade dough recipe of any kind no matter how hard I tried.
If you can’t make pie crust to save for your dog, or love to make crust and are still in search of the best recipe on the face of the earth – this recipe should work wonders for you!
Ingredients
• ¾ of a teaspoon of salt
• ¾ of a cup of 7Up – this MAKES the dough recipe the champion that it truly is!
• 2 ¾ cups of flour
• ¼ of a pound of chilled butter – some relatives make with unsalted butter and swear by it – I use salted.
• ¼ of a pound of chilled shortening
Directions
1. Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. Use a pastry cutter to cut in the butter and shortening – it will result in globs about the size of a pea.
3. Pour the 7Up in – slowly, and combine all of the ingredients thoroughly.
4. This recipe makes two standard pie crusts, divide in half and use as needed.
Tip – Chill the dough in the refrigerator for a half and hour before using – this is not essential but does create a more pliable dough that holds together better and enhanced taste.
Tara lives on a 56 acres farm in the Appalachian Mountains, where she faces homesteading and farming challenges every single day, raising chickens, goats, horses, and tons of vegetables. She’s an expert in all sorts of homesteading skills such as hide tanning, doll making, tree tapping, and many more.