10- Minute Homemade Cran-Apple Sauce

Believe it friends! Actually, believe it and then send excessive gratitude toward Alton Brown for this little bit of genius. I am trying to post only my own recipes, but this one is too good not to share, so I've adjusted Mr. Brown's recipe a little bit. I only specify cranberry juice here because, that's my spin on the recipe. You could always do what I did, and just adjust the recipe to the things you have on hand, and to your own taste! That's the beauty of this recipe, it's SO flexible!


6 apples*
2 tbsp butter
1 cup Trader Joe's Cranberry Cider**
3 tbsp brown sugar
optional: Brad likes to add cinnamon to his taste. I think it stands okay on it's own two feet...you can decide for yourself.

Peel, cut in half, and use some sort of sturdy scoop (like a melon baller) to take out the core of your apples. Put them in a large microwaveable container with a cover. Add the butter, cider, and brown sugar. Cover, and if your lid makes a tight seal, lift a corner to vent. Microwave for 10 minutes. (Depending on the apples, sometimes it takes me 15 minutes to get them all the way soft, but 10 usually does the trick.) When they're good and soft, you can use a potato masher, a hand mixer ( I suggest you break the apples up a bit by hand first, so the hot juice doesn't go flying...), or a stick blender if you really like it smooth. This tastes great warm or cold! If you leave it on the chunkier side, it's a great accompaniment to pork chops.

Don't be afraid to make this recipe your own! "Turn and face the strange...ch-ch-changes"!


*Alton uses a blend of Golden Delicious and Fuji, I used Cortlands. I think almost any apple will work, but one time I did try to use this recipe to fix up some "Fuji" apples that Brad described as having the texture of particle board, but they NEVER got soft...so I threw them away. :o( So please remember that it is produce and there is bound to be some variability here.

**If you don't have a Trader Joe's near by (I'm sorry!) you can substitute 1 cup cranberry juice, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves,1/8 tsp allspice, and a large piece of orange zest ( about one inch wide and runs from the top of the orange to the bottom) that you can peel off with a vegetable peeler.( Please be careful to avoid the white pith.) Just heat this up a bit on the stove top or in the microwave for about 2 minutes, then fish the orange peel out before adding the juice to the apples. Or, if you can find some other brand of cranberry cider that would be good too.

Also, here's a bonus song that I like to listen to while I'm in the kitchen. I particularly like it during this time of year, when the gentle crispness of fall is fading, and the brisk, cold winds are picking up.