Freezer Applesauce
If canning applesauce is a little out of your wheelhouse, this freezer applesauce recipe is perfect for you! It is super simple to make (no peeling if you don't want to!), requires no special tools, and it will stock your freezer with yummy, nutritious applesauce for months.
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Freezer Applesauce
- ⏰ Prep Time: 15 minutes (less if you don't peel your apples!)
- 🕰️ Cook Time: 20 minutes
- 🥘 Cooking Method: Stovetop, but you can also freeze my instant pot applesauce using this same method
- 🥄 Good For: Easy snacks, adding to smoothies (like my apple smoothie), using in baked goods (like my applesauce zucchini bread or applesauce banana bread)
- 🧡 Difficulty: If you can boil water, you can make freezer applesauce!
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hiya, friend: I love stocking my freezer when produce is fresh and in season. You'll find me freezing peaches, freezing strawberries, and freezing green beans during the summer. And once the weather turns to fall, you know I'm freezing apples in the form of this freezer-friendly applesauce recipe!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Peel or no peel: You get to choose your own adventure here. Just like with my Instant Pot applesauce, I usually leave the peels on. More fiber, more color, less work-it's a win!
- No sugar added: Apples are packed full of all-natural sweetness. No need to add any sugar to this recipe!
- Customize the flavor: I like adding a hefty dose of cinnamon, but you are in control. Unlike with canning applesauce, when you're freezing, you can experiment with ingredients to get the flavor you like without compromising safety.
- Applesauce for months: Freezing applesauce means you'll get up to a year of storage time. So stock up when you go apple picking!
🍎 The Ingredients You Need
- Apples: I like to use a mix of tart and sweet apples, but honestly, use whatever you have kicking around! This is the only actual ingredient you need. Everything else is optional.
- Lemon Juice: I like the bright flavor it adds to the applesauce. Plus, it helps keep the sauce from browning.
- Cinnamon: I like cinnamon applesauce, so I add it to mine, but feel free to leave it out.
- Salt: Salt may seem like a weird addition to applesauce, but it really just helps bring out the flavor of the apples.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Make apple pie flavored applesauce: Use 2 teaspoons apple pie spice (follow the spices I use in my caramel apple pie recipe) and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
- Make strawberry applesauce: Add 2 cups hulled strawberries to the last 2 minutes of the applesauce cooking process.
- Make it in the Instant Pot: follow my directions for Instant Pot applesauce, then freeze it as shown in this recipe.
- Can it to make it shelf stable: You'll need to use a professionally tested and approved recipe to can applesauce. Good thing I have an easy one! I'll teach you how to can applesauce, no problem.
🥣 How to Make Freezer Applesauce
Step 1: If you want, peel your apples. This results in a lighter colored applesauce that is slightly smoother. Regardless of if you leave the skins on or not, core the apples and chop.
Step 2: Add apples and just enough water to prevent scorching to a Dutch oven or stock pot. Boil gently, stirring occasionally until apples are tender.
Step 3: Add in cinnamon, lemon juice, and salt. Blend the apples into a smooth puree using an immersion blender, or transfer apples, working in batches, to a food mill, blender or a food processor and purée until smooth.
Step 4: Spoon into freezer-safe canning jars (I like the 24 ounce wide-mouth jars) or into zip-top freezer bags. Label and freeze.
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🙋🏻♀️ Freezer Applesauce FAQs
Yes! Applesauce is a great candidate for the freezer. It lasts for up to a year in the freezer and retains it's flavor and texture
Applesauce can be frozen in freezer-safe canning jars (ones with straight sides), glass food storage containers, rigid plastic food storage containers, silicone food cube trays or in zip-top freezer bags.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Use freezer-safe jars: Not all canning jars are safe for freezing! You're looking for ones with straight sides (like in these photos), not ones with shoulders. It'll say it's freezer safe on the box. And only fill up to the freezer line on the side of the jar.
- Try silicone freezer cube trays: Lately I've been freezing liquidy stuff like applesauce, my kale pesto, and my garden tomato soup in these cube trays with great results. Once frozen, I just pop them out and stash them in a large ziptop freezer bag.
- Label, label, label: You may think you'll remember that you stashed applesauce in the freezer, but you won't! Label it so you in 3 months, you aren't wondering what this brown goo is in a jar. Trust me.
🍏 More Ways to Preserve Apples
If you tried this Freezer Applesauce or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Freezer Applesauce
Ingredients
- 2 pounds tart green apples (like Granny Smith) peeled (if desired), cored and chopped into large chunks (about 8 medium-size apples)
- 2 pounds sweet apples (like Gala or Fuji) peeled (if desired), cored and chopped into large chunks (about 8 medium-size apples)
- Water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, optional about 1 large lemon's worth
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, optional
- Pinch of salt, optional
Instructions
- Put apples and just enough water to prevent scorching in a Dutch oven or stock pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until the apples are very tender, about 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from heat, add in the lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Then blend using an immersion blender, food mill, blender, or food processor until your desired consistency.
- Transfer to freezer-safe food storage containers or ziptop freezer bags. Label and freeze for up to a year.
- Thaw in the fridge overnight or on the counter for an hour or two.
Notes
- Leaving the peels on makes this quick to make, plus adds fiber and color to the applesauce. For a silky smooth sauce, peel your apples first. The choice is yours!
- Lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt are all optional-I think they enhance the apple flavor.
- This recipe contains no added sugar, but if your apples are particularly tart, you can add granulated sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time after blending to taste.
How long can you store the frozen apples in the freezer? It sounds like in this recipe you make them into applesauce fairly quickly after freezing the apples. I have a lot of apples and was wondering if they will keep in the freezer for 6 months or maybe even a year.
If you want to stash apples long term, I recommend checking out this post instead: https://wholefully.com/how-to-store-apples/
Thanks for recipe! Once prepared, how long can you keep this in the fridge. What should you store it in?
I store mine in glass canning jars, and you can get 7-10 days easily.
This recipe seems like a great concept! It is actually in the freezer right now. I skipped the lemon juice process, but I did put the apples in the water. Will it work if I skip the lemon juice? Just curious. 😀
The lemon juice is mostly there to keep the apples from browning and oxidizing. So it will probably work, it just might be a darker brown!
My apples froze on the tree and I have no choice. I am making a lot of apple sauce. I also have a vitamix. Don't forget that you can replace the butter or oil or margarine by half apple sauce in baking. If you need one cup of butter, use 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of apple sauce. I bake a lot and it works very well
After you freeze and mash the apples could you put it freezer containers and refreeze it?
Sure can!
I can't stand cooked apples in any shape or form. But I love pureed RAW apples without sugar. I've never frozen apples, since I didn't know how they'd turn out. Apparently, they're fine. This has opened a new world for me. I have a half bushel to deal with and this is what I will do with most of them. Thanks so much for posting this.