I gotta give my Instant Pot credit for renewing my love for homemade apple sauce. It’s sooooo easy to make apple sauce in the Instant Pot that it becomes a crime not to take advantage of all the free apples I have growing in our little orchard! We get hundreds of pounds of apples from our trees each year, and each year we do our best to harvest bushels of them which end up being made into hard apple cider, fresh apple juice, apple pies, applesauce, and add them to cheese & cracker snack plates. Of all the things we do with the apples, making apple sauce and fresh juice are the easiest!
There is something so magical about eating food you’ve watched develop from a delicate blossom to a delicious fruit, picked the fruit with your own hands, and used to create delicious recipes you and your family can enjoy! Being apart of the cycle of growing and enjoying nutrient dense organic foods is one of my favorite ways to celebrate life!!
I use a mix of “home orchard apples” which are apples that generally smaller and best when made into apple juice or cooked into sauce, as they don’t all have the best texture or deep flavor when eaten fresh. You can use any variety of apples you have access to for this recipe. There are hundreds of wild apple trees growing long the country roads around our home, so if you don’t have an apple trees on your own property, I hope I can inspire you to find some growing nearby your home that you can harvest for free too! So many people these days let their fruits go unharvested and it’s been my experience that when I ask permission to pick fruits going to waste in other people’s yards, they have always been happy to share and at least see someone get some joy and use out of the fruits!
Rosemary Apple Sauce – Paleo – Instant Pot
Author Andrea Wyckoff
Ingredients
3 pounds to 4 of orchard apples 10 to 14 apples – any variety
1 long sprig of fresh rosemary
1/2 cup water or apple juice
optional: 4 Tablespoons of maple sugar (coconut sugar or any sweetener)
optional: 2 teaspoons pie spice (mix of cinnamon nutmeg, clove)
Instructions
Note: This recipe is really forgiving – I just fill the Instant Pot halfway with chopped apples, add a spring of rosemary, 1/2 cup water, a lil’ sweetener, and set to high pressure for 5 minutes. Below are more detailed directions. See post above about the types of orchard apples I use. And if you hate rosemary – simply omit it.
Chop apples into bite size pieces. Remove seeds and core. I like the texture of having the apple skins in the chunky apple sauce, but you can peel the apples before cutting for a smoother sauce. If leaving the skins on, just be sure you chop the apples into small pieces for the best texture and mouth feel.
Add apples, rosemary, water to Instant Pot. Optional: sprinkle on sweetener and spices.
Secure lid. Set Instant Pot to Manual – High Pressure – 5 minutes cook time.
Wait for Instant Pot to do it’s thing. After the high pressure cooking I generally leave the lid on for another 10 minutes, but you can carefully release the steam from the valve if you’d like to access the apple sauce sooner.
You can use an immersion blender to puree the apples into a smooth apple sauce, if so, I recommend peeling apples before cooking. I personally like a chunky apple sauce with the skins on.
For a more intense rosemary flavor, you can mince up the cooked sprig of rosemary, discarding the woody stem, and stir minced rosemary into your applesauce.
Serve apple sauce as is, or sprinkle a little cinnamon/coconut sugar mixture over top, or homemade warm granola. We also love to serve this apple sauce with the homemade vanilla ice cream.
Recipe Notes
Note: If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make applesauce the old fashioned way on the stove top in a large covered pot for 20 to 30 minutes, though you may find you need to increase water to a total of 1 cup if cooking a large batch like this on the stove-top.
Or you can make this recipe in a slow cooker with 1 cup water, set on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours.