Homemade Strawberry Applesauce

This Homemade Strawberry Applesauce is super simple to make and only requires 4 ingredients. Kids and adults are both sure to love this delicious applesauce.

Homemade Strawberry Applesauce Ingredients

This simple vegan, gluten free, dairy free, no sugar added recipe has only a few ingredients. For this stovetop recipe you will need:

• Apples- any sweet crisp red apple such as Gala, Cosmic Crisp, etc.
• Strawberries- fresh strawberries if they are in season or frozen strawberries will also work
• Lemon- for fresh lemon juice
• Cinnamon- either cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon

How to Make Homemade Strawberry Applesauce

This recipe will take about 45 minutes to make. To start, wash the apples and strawberries (if using fresh strawberries. Then, peel and chop the apples. Next, remove the stems and slice the strawberries. Combine the apples and strawberries in a saucepan.

Then, add the juice from one lemon and cinnamon stick or cinnamon spice. Stir it up and start cooking! Cook over medium/high heat to bring to a simmer then lower heat and let cook until apples are super tender. This will take about 20 minutes. Be sure to lower the heat so that it doesn’t boil over onto your stove. Here is what it will look like:

Then, using a blender (immersion or standard) or food processor blend the applesauce to your desired consistency. Don’t forget to take out the cinnamon stick if you used one! My kids like it super smooth. Let cool and then store it.

To speed up cooling your applesauce, put it in an ice water bath. In a large bowl add ice and cold water. Then, put your applesauce in the containers you are going to store it in and place them into the ice water bath. This will cool off your applesauce much faster and then you can go ahead with storing it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Storage tips

This recipe does not include canning instructions and cannot be kept at room temperature. Leaving this fresh applesauce at room temperature could result in food poisoning. There are a couple of safe options for how to store your applesauce to ensure the best quality.

• We generally go through it quickly now so I will store it in a glass jar, mason jars or another airtight container in the refrigerator. In the refrigerator, it will be good for about a week.
• Another option is to make your own pouches. Disposable or reusable ones can be purchased on amazon. Those can be frozen for up to 3 months! If you don’t want to make individual pouches applesauce can also be frozen in freezer bags or other airtight containers.
• If you are making this recipe to be used for baby food is to freeze it in small portions such as an ice cube tray and pop into a resealable freezer bag and keep in the freezer. This allows you to take out a little at a time. We did this a lot when our children were little.
• Let frozen applesauce defrost overnight in the refrigerator before using. Do not defrost at room temperature to avoid bacteria growth.

Both ways of storing applesauce will work just be sure to use whichever is the best way for you to end up with the smallest amount of waste. Before serving applesauce that has been stored in the refrigerator or freezer be sure to give it a good stir to incorporate any excess water that may have separated out.

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If you enjoyed this homemade applesauce recipe be sure to try our others: Pear Pumpkin Applesauce, Crock Pot Blueberry Applesauce and Very Berry Spinach Applesauce. For other kid friendly recipes, check out our Homemade Macaroni and Cheese, Very Berry Blueberry Muffins, Peanut Butter Chocolate Protein Bites, Italian Pasta Salad, Citrus Chicken Pasta, Banana Bread, Sausage Casserole and Peanut Butter Honey Muffins.