October 14, 2020

Caramel Apple Applesauce

Apples with apple pie spices cooked in an Instant Pot and then mixed with caramel sauce. This Carmel Apple Applesauce is a delicious snack or dessert!

Kid Snacks

Have any of you read the Mother Bruce kids’ books? If you haven’t, you should, because they’re great, and really funny. My kids love them.

In any case, at the end of one of the books there is an applesauce recipe. Every time my son and I read that particular Bruce book, he sees the recipe, gets reminded of how much he likes applesauce, and asks me to make some.

Given that applesauce is a relatively healthy snack, and it’s easy to make, I’m almost always willing to make it for him.

Apples with apple pie spices cooked in an Instant Pot and then mixed with caramel sauce. This Carmel Apple Applesauce is delicious snack or dessert!

Caramel Apple Applesauce

A few weeks ago, my son remembered the Bruce books. We read them, and he asked for applesauce. In the past we have made Instant Pot Apple Cider Applesauce and Instant Pot Peach Applesauce.

Both are amazing, but this time I wanted to switch it up a little. So, I decided on Caramel Apple Applesauce.

Is it spelled Applesauce or Apple Sauce?

This has zero to do with the recipe, but looking back at my old recipes I realized I had written applesauce as two words. I then realized, I have no idea if it’s one word or two!

I just performed a quick google search and here is what I found: Merriam-Webster has it listed as one word, but plenty of legitimate websites and even applesauce making companies use two words.

This makes me wonder, why are apple juice, apple pie, and apple cider two words if applesauce is one word? And why if you make peach sauce or berry sauce, do you write those as two words and not one? I don’t get it.

If in fact ‘apple sauce’ is incorrect, I’ve decided it’s entirely my husband’s fault as he proofreads all my posts. But, I’m moving over to one word, so let’s chat about making this applesauce.

Types of Apples

For this recipe I used Granny Smith and Fuji apples. This IS important. If you change varieties, the sweetness level of your applesauce will change.

I’m all for playing around with a recipe, so use whatever apples you have, but keep in mind that you may need to adjust the caramel sauce content to control the sweetness level.

Liquid

For all of my applesauce recipes, I use either apple cider or apple juice for the liquid. This adds an extra bit of sweetness and an extra apple-y taste.

Spices

In this recipe I basically used a homemade version of apple pie spice. For me, I use the following:

Cinnamon
Nutmeg
All Spice

You can certainly purchase premade Apple Pie Spice and use that in the place of the mix, but I like to control the levels of each individual spice, depending on the recipe I’m working with.

Caramel Sauce

Practically any jarred variety of caramel sauce will work for this recipe. I used Smucker’s Caramel Topping as; a.) I had it on hand, and b.) it’s tasty.

This Caramel Apple Applesauce is a delicious, easy, healthier treat for any time of the year!

Caramel Apple Applesauce

Apples with apple pie spices cooked in an Instant Pot and then mixed with caramel sauce. This Carmel Apple Applesauce is delicious snack or dessert!

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Course: Side Dish

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 7

Servings: servings

Calories: 121

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Ingredients

4 large Fuji apples or Honeycrisp
4 large Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup apple juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/4 cup caramel sauce

Instructions

Peel, core, and dice apples. Place apples in Instant Pot inner pot. Add apple juice, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice.
Cook on high pressure for 7 minutes. Let natural release for 10 minutes. If you prefer chunky apple sauce, simply stir. If you like smooth apple sauce, use an immersion blender to blend, or transfer apple sauce to blender.
Stir in caramel sauce.