Pink Applesauce

Pink Applesauce

Inspired by some of my canning friends who add all sorts of other fruits to their applesauce I decided to mix things up a little by making applesauce  with cranberries.I still had a quite a few apples from Fall harvest and decided to can more applesauce the other day. It came out a pretty shade of pink. The cranberries also added  nice tartness to the mix. Doing it over I would add another bag of cranberries, perhaps. The nice thing about applesauce is you can make any amount, depending on how many apples you happen to have. You can also freeze the mixture if you don’t want to can it.

Pink Applesauce

60 apples

12 oz. cranberries

water

1 c. lemon juice

sugar to taste

Peel and core apples. Put in water with some ascorbic acid, citric acid or lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Place apples in a pot with enough water to prevent sticking and add the cranberries and lemon juice. Cook over medium high heat until soft. I wanted smooth applesauce so I ran the cooked apple mixture through a food mill on the medium blade. Return apple mixture to pan and bring to a boil. Sweeten with sugar, if you like, or leave unsweetened. Have water bath full of boiling water and have hot, clean canning jars and lids and rings ready. Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Wipe rims and apply lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes for pints or quarts. Yield: 8 quarts 0r 16 pints.