Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce

Cinnamon Applesauce, a simple homemade applesauce spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. An easy way to use up soft apples!

With apple season in full swing, we’re creating lots of apple concoctions in the Crooked Carrot household. Apples in oatmeal, apple butter, maybe even apple pie soon—I can just see the smile on Dalton’s face at the idea of apple pie!

But today let's start with some applesauce, not just any applesauce, spiced applesauce. Spiced with nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon.

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Ready to get cooking? Let’s make this yummy spiced applesauce!

This Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce is super easy to cook up chopped apples that soften into sweet deliciousness. It’s such a great way to use up past-their-prime apples (works for pears too).

It’s a great simple snack, but also wonderful to use in baked goods or as an addition to oatmeal for an apple twist.

How to make Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce

1 - Wash apples and prepare for chopping. I like to leave the peelings on (it adds extra fiber and they’ll soften as they’re cooked), but if you’re a no peels kind of person, then roughly peel the apples.

Zero Waste Pro Tip: Bake the apple peels at low temperature for crispy apple chips or blend them into a smoothie.

2 - Roughly chop the apples around the core and place them in a large pot over medium heat. I usually cut the apple into thick slices and cut each slice into thirds. No need to make perfect cuts here.

3 - Add water, lemon juice, sugar, and spices to the pot with the apples, stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer about 15 minutes, or until the apples are soft.

4 - Once the apples are soft, blend or mash the mixture until smooth. You can do this with a potato masher or immersion blender. I personally like to keep the applesauce a bit chunky, but blend until you reach your desired consistency.

It’s that simple!

Spiced Applesauce: Tips, Tricks, and Tools

Use soft apples: Though you can use fresh crisp apples, this applesauce is great way to use up soft apples that are past their prime.

Simple Kitchen Tools: An immersion blender or food processor will work great to blend this applesauce.

High Quality Ingredients: We try to source local organic apples when we can. Especially with apples, we try to buy organic because they are considered one of the dirty dozen.

Storage: I use a glass mason jar to store this applesauce. If you’re storing it in the freezer, make sure not to overfill it - leave about an inch gap at the top so the mason jar doesn’t break. And be sure to let it cool before putting it in the freezer.

Sweetness: I find the applesauce is sweet enough on its own, but if you’d like it to be sweeter, just add in a bit more sugar, honey, or sweetener of choice.

Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce Variations

While I love this applesauce as is, here are a couple ways to get creative and change it up!

Pear Sauce: Use pears instead of apples for a pear sauce. I’ve also used both pears and apples in my sauce and it turns out great!

Spice it up: Use pumpkin spice or change up the spices by adding ginger or cardamom. Pears with cardamom is a delicious combination.

Zesty applesauce: Add in some lemon zest or change it up and use orange juice or orange zest for a citrus twist.

Warm or cold: Warm applesauce on a fall day is the best, but this recipe is also delicious straight out of the fridge.

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This Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce is a simple snack and a great way to use up those soft apples.

Craving more simple snack ideas? Check out our healthy snack recipes like Seeded Vegan Bliss Balls or Baked Kale Chips.

Did you make this Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce?

Comment below! And rate the recipe to let us know how it turned out! Or save this it for later by pinning it to your Snacks Board and make sure to tag us at The Crooked Carrot Instagram to show us your Cinnamon Spiced Applesauce creations!

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