Easy Applesauce or Pearsauce

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Chef Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans last year in a Farmers Market newsletter. This will be one of the recipes Chef Kathryn will be demonstrating at the market today from 4:00 – 4:30. She will be back next week at the same time to impart more cooking advice!

Applesauce couldn’t be easier:

“What did you put in that applesauce? My kids don’t even like applesauce and they loved yours. They keep talking about it,” a mother exclaimed to Leann Rowlett. In addition to vending at the farmers market, Leann is an elementary school cook who serves lunch to 130 kids. She brings cases of Kiyokawa Orchard apples for the children to snack on. “It’s fun to see kids eating fresh fruit every day and to see their excited faces,” she says. She responds to the mother with this simple recipe for applesauce that she makes every year:

“Just peel the apples and push them through an apple slicer, you know, the kind with 6 or 8 sections that takes out the core and slices the apple in one shot. Put them in a crock-pot and let them cook slowly. I just let it cook overnight. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla (extract) once the apples are cooked. If you want a smoother sauce, you can mash it a bit with a potato masher.” The mother looks with skepticism at Leann, “No, really, what did you put in it?”

The key to her amazing applesauce is to include at least 2-3 different varieties of apples in one dish. “People don’t know why it doesn’t taste quite like anything they’ve eaten before,” explains Leann, “but by using different apples, you round out the flavors, so the palate jumps from sweet to floral to tart to fruity.”

That’s it. No fuss, no sugar, just pure fruit and maybe a little spice for flavor. Substitute pears for apples for pearsauce. Just note that pears will cook more quickly than apples.

Kathryn Yeomans – Sage Culinary Advice

For more recipes and cooking tips, visit The Farmer’s Feast.