At Cracker Barrell they have cooked apples in a sauce that is yummy. Anyone have a way to make this - I have lots of apples just starting to rippen on trees. Is this something that I could can?
Dunno about canning it, but I ran into a crock-pot applesauce recipie on here that I modified into an applesauce that tastes rather similar to the side dish you're thinking of.
Original Recipie
here.
My (rather heavily) modified version.
6 medium apples (I prefer Golden Delicious for this, but have yet to try Grannies).
2 1/4 cups Apple Juice (I've used 100% calcium fortified juice).
2 TBsp. Butter (cause everythin's bettah wit buttah) cubed.
1/2 tsp. ground Cinnimon
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/3 cup Sugar (I've used Splenda Granulated substitute with good results).
In a saucepan (might want to use something non-reactive, dunno if apple juice will react adversely or not, mine's non-stick coated) reduce the apple juice to 3/4 cup in volume (Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer. if you go a little too far, just splash a little more from the bottle). While this is reducing, it's time to peel, core and slice your apples. I use a vegtable peeler and a 8 slice corer-slicer, and cut each slice in half (the easy way) so I'm left with 16 chunks. Place your slices in a crock pot. I use a large (think it's 5 qt) crock pot, and I generally double and sometimes treble this recipie. See very bottom my advice on making large volumes of this.
Once you've got the correct volume of juice and your apples sliced, melt the butter in the hot juice, add the salt, sugar(substitute), and cinnimon and whisk to combine (I generally transfer the hot juice to a large Pyrex measuring cup for measuring and then do the combining there too). Continue to whisk as you pour over your sliced apples in the crock pot.
Cover and set 'Pot to high. Wait a minimum of two hours (no peekage!) before stirring. Stir well and break up large chunks (if desired you can leave them be and just stir gently, but be sure to turn everything over) and cook for an additional 15-30 minutes (just to give the cinnimon time to work into anything that was on top for the earlier cooking process).
Kick pot to "warm" (which not all 'Pots have, and I love mine) and serve for hot goodness, or transfer to another container(s) and chill and/or freeze.
Tips for large volumes:
Prepare all of your non-fruit ingredients and add to the pot at the beginning.
When I treble the recipe I have to cook the first two thirds of the apples down a bit before I can add the last half dozen apples. Start the first half or so and wait before peeling the remainder. Just prepare the fruit the same way, and add them about an hour to an hour and a half after starting. Stir them in well (this will break down the previous slices pretty well) and cook for approx 1-1.5 hours. Stir again, leaving chunks if desired, large chunks are easier to come by with large volumes, for smoother sauce, try cooking longer.