What Apples are Best for Applesauce? - Robinette's Apple Haus & Winery (2024)

FAQs

What variety of apples make the best applesauce? ›

Use different apple varieties for a mix of sweet and tart flavors with firm and soft textures. I'm partial to Jonagolds, Fujis, and Golden Delicious. You can peel your apples for a smoother texture, but I prefer the added flavor that intact peels bring.

Gala. A crisp, sweet apple with a mild flavor, Galas have yellow-orange skin with red striping. They're among the best apples for applesauce, salads, eating out-of-hand, and pressing into cider.

The best varieties for canning apples are crisp, not mealy, types. Some of the best apples for canning include Fuji, Braeburn, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Jazz, Honeycrisp, and Cortland.

The mellow sweetness of toasted sugar adds complexity. Apple cider vinegar helps brighten cooked fruit. Using skin-on fruit improves both flavor and color in the finished product. Aromatics like cinnamon, orange peel, and rose water intensify the flavor of the apples.

Its firm flesh makes Paula Red a good fresh eating and cooking apple, especially good for a delicious, naturally pink applesauce and for pie making. It is an early season apple ripening in late August, and like most early apples, Paula Red does not keep for too long.

In addition to fresh preparations, Golden Supreme apples can be baked into pies, crisps, muffins, cakes, turnovers, and dumplings. The apples are also simmered into jams, jellies, and other preserves or cooked into apple sauce as a side dish.

Ruby Mac. A mid-season apple, that is a great eating apple and for applesauce.

Start by toasting a half-teaspoon of your favorite ground baking spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice) in a small skillet over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Transfer to a small bowl to stop the cooking, then stir in a pinch or two of the spice into your applesauce, adding more to taste.

At the same time, avoid apples that are mealy in texture and turn to mush when cooked down. Many cooks avoid Red Delicious for that reason. For a well-rounded applesauce, our Food Editor recommends stewing up a mix of a few different apples.

How to thicken applesauce? ›

If your applesauce is too runny, you can simmer it longer on the stovetop, letting some of that extra liquid evaporate. As it cools, it'll thicken up a bit more. Another quick fix is to dissolve a teaspoon of cornstarch in water and stir it into the applesauce.

If you're looking to increase your vitamin C intake, try a Pink Lady or McIntosh apple, Crumble Smith says. If fiber is what you seek, go for a Honeycrisp or Granny Smith. Across the board with apples one thing's for sure, Crumble Smith says, eat them raw and unpeeled.

If you're buying apples specifically for the occasion, though, considering choosing softer varieties with balancing flavors. Choose a sweeter apple like Gala or Golden Delicious, and pair it with tangy and tart apple like a McIntosh or Granny Smith. Avoid red delicious apples if you can.

Apples are considered a high acid food, so it is safe to use the hot water bath method of canning outlined below. Although, if you have the equipment and want a slightly faster way to process apples you can also pressure can applesauce. It's actually one of the few foods you can choose to can using either method.

Homemade Applesauce: I often recommend Jonagold Apples for my tart, pie or crisp recipes. I was researching the best Apples for Apple Sauce and the list of best Apples for various recipes including eating them fresh off the tree, Pies, Apple Sauce. Tarts, etc.... every list included Jonagold.

Which apples bake best? For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

Classically bred and grown in Washington State, the Cosmic Crisp^® apple is a cross of the Enterprise and Honeycrisp varieties. The large, juicy and red apple has a perfectly balanced flavor and firm texture, making it ideal for snacking, cooking, baking, and entertaining.

Best Apples for Caramel Apples

You can use any variety of apple you enjoy such as Granny Smith, Fuji, or Honeycrisp. Granny Smith are a popular choice for caramel apples because they're tart, which pairs perfectly with sweet buttery caramel.