Homemade Cran-Apple Sauce

By VegasBartender

Ingredients

• 10 medium Apples (see step 1)
• 1 bag (12 oz) Cranberries
• Sugar and or Stevia (or if you prefer, Splenda) to taste (normally 1/4 cup of either)
• 1 medium or large pot

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from pickyourown.org

Preparation

Step 1

Step 1 - Selecting the apples

The most important step! You need apples that are sweet - that way, you can use less refined sugar or other sweetener!
Instead, choose apples that are naturally sweet, like Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Rome and always use a mixture - never just one type. The Fuji's and Gala's give it an aromatic flavor! Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are also excellent, sweet, flavorful apples.

Step 2 - If you are canning: Wash the jars and lids

Now's a good time to get the jars ready, so you won't be rushed later. The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle, the water bath processing will sanitize them as well as the contents! If you don't have a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle, you can wash the containers in hot, soapy water and rinse, then sanitize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes, and keep the jars in hot water until they are used. Leave the jars in the dishwasher on "heated dry" until you are ready to use them. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when you fill them with the hot cranapplesauce.
Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Step 3- Wash the apples and cranberries

Step 4 - Peel the apples

Step 5 - Core and slice the apples

Step 6 - Start the cranberries cooking

They take longer than the apples, so put 2 inches of water (or cranberry or apple juice) in a pot, get it boiling and pour the cranberries in. Let them cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice (you'll hear the berries popping, as they cook).

Step 7 - Add the apples

When the berries have started popping, and you've stirred them a couple of times, add the apples. Now just cook on medium heat until the apples feel soft with a fork all the way through (about 10 - 15 minutes after you've added them).

Note: in general, you'll want about equal amounts of cranberries to peeled, slice apples. Of course, if you want it tarter, use more cranberries; sweeter or more apple-y, then add more apples!

Step 8 - Sweeten the cran-apple sauce

Turn off the heat. Add sugar to taste. Start out with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar or Stevia (or if you prefer, Splenda), as you prefer.
If you don't plan to can any, you're done! Just serve warm or cold!


If you want to can for later, continue through to steps 9 and 10.

The cranapplesauce does not need any further cooking; just keep it hot until you get enough made to fill the jars you will put into the canner (Canners hold seven jars at once, whether they are quart or pint size)
Step 9 - Fill the jars and process them in the water bath

Fill them to within 1/2 inch of the top, wipe any spilled cranapplesauce of the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Put them in the canner and keep them cover with at least 1 inch of water and boiling. if you are at sea level (up to 1,000 ft) boil pint jars for 15 minutes and quart jars for 20 min. If you are at an altitude of 1,000 feet or more, see the chart at the bottom of this page.
Step 10 - Remove and cool the jars - Done

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.