Want to know the difference between apple sauce and apple purée? The recipe I have here for homemade apple sauce and apple purée, with or without skin, will give you everything you need to create a taste sensation from cooking or dessert apples. Use as baby food or to accompany savoury sausages, breakfast porridge, sweet pancakes and so much more.
Every year I make a batch or two of what I call apple purée. It’s a great way to use up windfall apples in the autumn. If you live anywhere near an apple tree, the owners are often keen to pass a few on. Back in Cornwall, I had access to my mother’s garden apples, but where I live now, many a garden gate has a box of “help yourself” apples sitting outside it.
So What Is The Difference Between Apple Sauce And Apple Purée?
I don’t want to let you down here, but to be honest, there’s not a lot in it. The two names are often used interchangeably. It’s all in the consistency.
Apple sauce is slightly chunky whereas apple purée has a much finer texture. Both are made from cooked apples. For apple sauce, once you’ve cooked the apples, you just stir them into a mush. Apple purée, on the other hand, is blended or sieved to create a much smoother finish.
Incidentally, in the US, apple sauce is written as one word, applesauce. It also has a slang meaning. So if you hear applesauce quoted out of context, it probably means “nonsense”.
What’s The Best Apples For Apple Sauce?
You can use any dessert or cooking apple to make apple sauce or apple purée. If you’re making unsweetened apple sauce for babies, go with sweet dessert apples. Otherwise, Bramleys and other cooking apples are best.
Dessert apples are firmer and don’t break down in the same way as cooking apples. This means you might want to lightly mash them with a potato masher once cooked.
If you have an apple tree in your garden or kindly neighbours with one, apple sauce is a great way to use up any windfalls. That’s mostly what I use.
What’s The Best Apples For Apple Purée?
Whilst you can use any dessert or cooking apple to make apple purée if you have a good blender, it’s best to go with cookers such as Bramleys. They cook fast and almost form a purée without any need to mash, sieve or blend.
A quick blitz with a blender and they’re done. Having said that a good blender will purée just about anything.
Apple Sauce And Apple Purée Ingredients
Fundamentally, you can make both apple sauce and apple purée with two simple ingredients: apples and water. However, unless it’s destined for baby food, I think it benefits from a few other ingredients too.
Sugar
Apple sauce or purée is most often made with cooking apples or tart windfall apples. If you don’t use a sweetener, you’ll end up with a puckered mouth. And tart is okay, depending on what you want to use it for. If you don’t want to add sugar, try cooking dessert apples. Alternatively, see my section below on alternative apple sauce sweeteners.
However, I mostly use apple purée as a topping for unsweetened items, such as yoghurt or porridge, so I like to have mine medium sweet. How much sugar I add, will depend on the type of apple I use. The important thing is to taste test so that you get the right amount of acidity from the fruit and sweetness from the sugar.
One of the great things about sugar is that it helps to preserve food. If you use sugar, your finished apples will last longer than if you don’t.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice also acts as a preserving agent in a small way. However, I find it particularly useful to stop the cut apples from oxidising. When you expose apple flesh to the air, it starts to go brown quite quickly. The acidity of lemon juice stops this.
As I chop the apples, I drop them in the pan and squeeze in the lemon juice. Every time I add more apples, I give them a good stir to ensure they’re covered with some of that lemon juice. It works a treat.
If you’re making unsweetened apples though, it’s probably best not to use it or your sauce will end up too tart.
Spices
A little spice makes most things nice. But the key here is, just a little. You’re looking for an enhancement rather than a dominant flavour. My preferred spice for apple sauce and apple purée is ground cloves. You only need a pinch as it’s a particularly powerful spice, but it brings out the sweet notes of apple quite beautifully.
Ground cinnamon is another spice that pairs well with apple. You’ll need a little more of this one, but not much.
The third spice I recommend is vanilla. Vanilla extract to be precise. It’s not the most obvious choice for apple, but it’s a good one.
To Peel Or Not To Peel?
Back in the day, I used to peel my apples before I made apple purée. But that was before I got a power blender. As soon as I had a machine that could cope with peel, I didn’t look back.
Much of the apples’ nutrition is in the peel, so it seems an awful shame to chuck it away. Then there’s the waste aspect. I make nearly twice as much purée with my unpeeled apples as I do with the peeled ones.
And the final thing that an unpeeled apple sauce recipe has going for it is that it takes ages to peel apples. The sauce takes only half the amount of time to prepare if I don’t have to remove those apple skins.
However, if you like a chunky or semi-chunky sauce, it’s best to peel your apples. Large pieces of apple skins in a soft sauce are a bit off putting and they get stuck between your teeth.
A lot will depend on whether you have a decent blender. If you do, try a batch of unpeeled apple purée and see what you think. Apart from the texture, the only real difference I detect is the colour. Red skinned apples give a reddish tint, yellow ones a yellow hue and green skinned ones a green one.
Apple purée made with unpeeled apples is smooth and almost silky in texture, whereas the peeled apple sauce has a substantially rougher mouthfeel.
Top Tip
If you’re making apple sauce or apple purée with unpeeled apples, you won’t need to add as much sugar. Start with a small amount and add more if needed later.
How To Make Apple Sauce And Apple Purée
Apple sauce or purée is quite easy to make. The process and ingredients are similar. If you decide to go for skin-on apple purée then it’s even easier as you don’t have to peel the apples.
The quantities I’ve given in the recipe card at the bottom of the post make two 300ml (1 ¼ cups) jars of unpeeled purée or one 300ml (1 ¼ cups) jar of peeled purée or sauce.
Step 1. Sterilise Jars And Lids
If you’re going to keep your apple purée or sauce for any length of time, it’s essential that you sterilise the glass jars and lids you’ll be using.
Follow the steps in my how to sterilise glass jars, bottles and associated lids.
However, if you’re eating the sauce right away, keeping it for just a few days or freezing it, you don’t need to do this.
Step 2. Prepare Apples
Scrub the apples with water to remove any dirt or debris, then rinse. Depending on whether you’re going for an unpeeled purée or a peeled sauce, you’ll need to peel the apples. Either way cut them into quarters or eights and take out the cores.
Roughly chop and throw into a large lidded saucepan. Add the water and lemon juice and give the apples a good stir. The lemon juice prevents the apples from oxidising and going brown.
Top Tip
Add each apple to the pan as you prepare them and give a quick stir so the lemon juice can do its thing.
Step 3. Add Sugar – If Using
Add the sugar and spice, if using. For unsweetened apple sauce or purée, skip this step.
Step 4. Cook
Bring the pan to the boil, place the lid over the top and reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook the peeled apples for ten to fifteen minutes and the unpeeled ones for fifteen to twenty minutes.
It’s not a good idea to stew the apples for too long as you’ll lose some of their flavour and nutrients.
They’re done as soon as they’re soft. Bramley apples and other cookers will disintegrate into a mush and that’s just what you want. Dessert apples, however, may keep their shape.
Top Tip
Use more sugar for unpeeled apples and less for peeled ones. There’s a lot more bulk if you leave the apples unpeeled, so they need a bit more sweetener. Taste test once the apples are cooked and add a little more sugar, if needed.
Step 5. Blend, Stir Or Mash
If you’re making apple purée, blend the apples until they’re smooth. If you don’t have a blender, you can push the apples through a sieve.
For apple sauce, you may only need to stir. However, if you’re using dessert apples or windfalls that hold their shape, use a potato masher to get your desired consistency.
Serve hot or cold.
Alternative Apple Sauce Sweeteners
If you like your apple sauce or purée sweet, there are a number of alternatives to conventional sugar that you can use.
Maple syrup, honey or date syrup will all sweeten your apple sauce in different ways. They’ll add their own flavour profile to that of the apple. Take your pick.
If you prefer a lower calorie sweetener and something that doesn’t bring along its own flavour, try xylitol. It’s incredibly sweet, so you won’t need much. Add a tablespoon, taste test, then add more as needed.
Unrefined brown sugar or coconut sugar will give both a caramel colour and flavour notes to your apple sauce.
How Long Will Apple Sauce Or Apple Purée Keep?
If properly prepared, sealed apple sauce or purée will keep for at least a month in the fridge. I usually store mine for much longer and I’ve never seen signs of spoilage. Once you’ve opened a jar, use within four days.
For longer term storage, however, you can freeze the sauce or purée. Either divide it up between small freezer proof tubs or for smaller amounts use ice cube trays.
Freeze in the trays initially, then pop them out of their holes and place in a freezer proof bag or other container. Silicone ice cube trays are best for this as they’re more flexible which makes it easier to get the frozen purée out.
How To Use Apple Sauce And Apple Purée
Both apple sauce and apple purée are so delicious, you’ll want to add them to everything. But just in case you’re not that familiar with them, here are a few ideas on how to use them.
Simple Dessert
Serve warm or cold with yoghurt, cream or ice cream for an almost instant dessert. Alternatively spoon over warm pancakes and waffles to pep them up no end.
Baby Food
Use unsweetened apple sauce or apple purée. Keep it plain, with no added lemon, spice or sugar. However, cooking apples will be too tart, so go with dessert apples for sweetness.
Baking
Apple sauce and purée is often used as a replacement for or way of reducing butter or other fats in cakes, muffins and cookies. You can see this in action with my triple apple cake. Some also use it as an egg replacer. Sixty grams (¼ cup) equates to one large egg.
Use it as the base layer in these apple tarts, as a filling for these apple crumble and custard cakes or to sandwich this hazelnut and chocolate cake together. You can also use it to make super tasty flapjacks or sweet scones.
Breakfast
Combine apple purée or apple sauce with natural yoghurt and granola for a delicious and healthy breakfast. Stir it into your overnight oats or top your porridge with it, as I do.
Savoury Condiment
Traditionally apple sauce is used to accompany pork or goose in the UK. That’s not much good to us non-meat eaters though. Never mind the pork sausages, I find it still makes a great accompaniment to a veggie or vegan sausage.
Thankfully, it’s also traditional to top potato latkes with a spoonful of apple sauce. Do try it if you haven’t already. The apple sauce cuts through the rather oily latkes most effectively.
In a similar vain, it acts as a good foil for cheese dishes too. Try it with cheese on toast, mac n cheese or cheese tarts.
Add a spoonful to mashed potato. Yes really. A small amount also works well mixed into braised or stir-fried cabbage, particularly red cabbage.
Other Fruit Preserves You Might Like
- Apple lemon curd
- Cranberry sauce
- Easy strawberry jam (no added pectin)
- Pear almond butter
- Pumpkin butter
- Rhubarb ginger chutney
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make homemade apple sauce or apple purée, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more apple recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Apple Purée. PIN IT.
Apple Purée And Apple Sauce Recipes
Ingredients
- 750 g apples (Bramleys and other cooking apples are best)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 50 ml water
- 750 g golden caster sugar (anywhere between 50g and 100g)
- 1 pinch ground cloves or ¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
Apple Purée (unpeeled)
- Briefly scrub the apples to remove any debris and rinse. Cut into quarters or eighths and remove the cores, but don’t peel.750 g apples
- Chop roughly and place in a large lidded pan together with the water and lemon juice. Stir the apples as you add them to the pan. The lemon juice will stop them oxidising and going brown.1 tbsp lemon juice, 50 ml water
- Add the sugar (I use 75g) and spice, if using.750 g golden caster sugar, 1 pinch ground cloves
- Bring to a gentle simmer, stir and cook with the lid on for fifteen to twenty minutes or until the apples and skin are soft. Bramleys and other cooking apples will go mushy and that’s fine.
- If the apples seem a bit too dry or are catching on the bottom of the pan, just add a tablespoon or two of water.
- Taste test to ensure the apples are sweet enough for your liking. If not add a little more sugar.
- Blitz the lot in a blender until you have a fine purée. Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal. Or eat within four days. Serve warm or cold.
- Will keep in the fridge for at least a month. Once opened, consume within 3-4 days.
Apple Purée (peeled)
- Follow the same method as above, but peel the apples first.
- You won’t need as much sugar as there won’t be as much bulk. Start with 50g and taste test when cooked. Add more sugar if you feel it needs it.
- You’ll only need to cook the apples for ten to fifteen minutes.
Apple Sauce
- Follow the same method as for peeled apple purée, above. Only stir the apple sauce when it's finished cooking rather than blending it. If it's too lumpy for your liking, use a potato masher to get your ideal texture.
Apple Sauce Or Purée (unsweetened)
- Follow the methods for apple sauce or purée, but don’t add the sugar or the lemon juice. You may, or may not, want to add the spice. Sweeter dessert apples are best for unsweetened apple sauce.
Rachel says
This homemade applesauce was so easy to make and delicious! I added some cinnamon and it was perfect!
Choclette says
It’s a great recipe for this time of year. Apples and cinnamon are just fabulous together. Thanks for letting us know.
Andrea says
this is so helpful! will be making both this week!
Choclette says
Now we’re in apple season, both sauce and purée are excellent things to make.