Baked Applesauce

We took a trip to the farm for apple picking this weekend.  Our haul this year was 30lbs of apples, up from 26lbs two years ago.  The good news is that we now have a preschooler who loves apples as well as an infant who eats applesauce.  But 30lbs still means a lot of baking!

I went back to the hits from our last trip to the apple orchard, and made baked applesauce, which we found on allrecipes.

I knew we liked it a lot last time, so went ahead and doubled it.  I also made a few modifications, using half brown sugar half white sugar, and adding nutmeg, cloves, and some ginger.  Very nice.  I sliced my apples way too thick in some cases, which made mashing them up very difficult, so this batch came out way chunkier than I might have liked otherwise.  My husband also didn't make the comment about licking his bowl that he made when he made this applesauce, but he's been taking it with his lunches every day since I made it!

Ingredients

• 2 large tart apples, peeled and sliced
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place apples in a greased 1-qt. baking dish. In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and vanilla; mix well. Sprinkle over apples. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender. Uncover and mash with a fork. Serve warm.