I have been spending a lot of time over the last 6 months, making a variety of different flavored applesauces. Applesauce is a great platform to introduce all sorts of flavors. I have been experimenting with adding different fruits to make sauce. I have used pears, peaches, pomegranates, cranberries, and more. I once made a mango applesauce that I served to some guests we had over for dinner. They couldn’t believe that they were eating just mangos and apples! Something else I have been meaning to try is putting honey into applesauce. I wanted to see how different varietal honeys would do in applesauce.
How to Sweeten Applesauce with Honey
Normally when I make applesauce I try to use a balance of sweet and tart apples, with my goal being not to have to add any additional sugar. But since I was planning on adding something sweet like honey, I went with Jonathan apples, which are nice and tart. These apples break down quickly too, so my sauce is done sooner. I cook my apples in a slow cooker. I just slice them up, leaving the skins on, and cook them until they are mush. I then run the apples through a food mill to remove the skins. This is so much easier than having to peel all the apples up front. I think that by cooking with the skins on gives the sauce a better color.
I then divided the sauce into two batches. I added some orange blossom honey to one batch and some cranberry blossom honey to the other. I didn’t measure the honey, I just put some in, stirred it up, and tasted it. When it was sweet enough, I moved onto the 2nd batch. This is why I am not giving an exact recipe here. This is something that you don’t need to follow an list of exact ingredients.
The reason I added the honey in the end was that I didn’t want to risk diminishing the flavor of the honey at all by cooking it, even in a slow cooker. Now onto the results. Both were really good, but I think the cranberry blossom honey was better. The slight berry taste of the cranberry honey worked really well. I am going to continue to experiment using other varietal honeys. You can use whatever your taste buds like.