No-Cook Homemade Applesauce {Video}

Homemade applesauce just tastes better—a lot better than anything you can buy in the store. This no-cook applesauce is naturally sweet, pleasantly tart, and fresh-tasting. With the minimal effort this homemade applesauce requires, you’ll be glad you made it. It’s vegan (dairy-free, egg-free), grain-free (gluten-free), soy-free, nut-free, and refined sugar-free.

This applesauce recipe actually happened by accident.

For a week straight I was making apple juice for my kids using my Vitamix blender. I would blend Honey Crisp apples with a little bit of water, strain the purée through a filtration bag, and twist until I got the juice extracted.

One day I was out of Honey Crisp apples but had Rome apples on hand. I didn’t think it would make any difference but after blending those apples, I ended up with thick applesauce rather than apple juice with pulp.

I couldn’t believe how good the applesauce was: flavorful and bright with natural sweetness and pleasant tartness. Even more importantly, it boasted a wholesome fruit flavor. It tasted like a cross between applesauce and apple butter—bright and fresh in flavor, but smooth and buttery in texture.

Ready to learn how to make the easiest applesauce at home?

Tips for Making No-Cook Applesauce

Ingredients

This raw homemade applesauce contains only one ingredient (and optional spices):

• Apples: there are two things to consider when choosing apples for applesauce. First, the taste of the apples and second, the amount of juice the apples contain. I find that starchy, rather than juicy, apples are best for making applesauce in a Vitamix blender. This would include naturally softer varieties such as Red Delicious, McIntosh, or Rome The opposite would be firm, crisp, and juicy apples such as Honeycrisp, Fuji, Granny Smith, or Pink Lady.
• Spices (optional): I don’t typically add spices when making no-cook applesauce, but you could add cinnamon or other warming spices, such as nutmeg or cloves.

How to Make Homemade Applesauce

If you’ve never made applesauce in a blender, you won’t believe how easy it is!

All you have to do is add the apples to a high-speed blender that comes with a tamper (I use the Vitamix) and blend on high until smooth, using the tamper to push the apples down into the blade.

You don’t even need to peel the apples. I leave the peel on to add a nice deeper color and extra flavor, and if you’re using soft apples, the peel doesn’t affect the texture. The high-speed blender makes the applesauce completely smooth.

How to Serve Applesauce

There are lots of ways you can use applesauce or apple purée.

My favorite way to eat homemade applesauce is on its own as a snack.

However, you can swirl it into yogurt, use it as a topping for pancakes or waffles, spoon it over porridge, or serve it alongside vanilla ice cream. It’s also great as a base for apple crisp or energy bars packed with fruit and seeds (a recipe coming soon!)

How to Store Raw Applesauce

• Refrigerating: transfer the homemade applesauce to an airtight container in the refrigerate it for 7-10 days.
• Freezing: transfer the homemade applesauce to an airtight container and freeze it for up to 3 months.

Did you make this recipe? I would love to know how it turned out! Please let me know by leaving a review and rating below.