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Let’s can some applesauce… but make it more exciting. This mixed berry applesauce uses mixed berries you foraged, picked, and froze for later on your own or even a bag of frozen mixed fruit that you picked up at the grocery store and blends them with some sweet apples you picked during apple season for a delicious applesauce everyone is sure to go nuts for. Either way, it makes plain ol’ applesauce a whole lot more fun. I enjoy making all kinds of different fruit flavored applesauce creations and you can too. Simply use this recipe as a guide and add the weight of fruit to the applesauce in whatever kind you want. I highly recommend trying strawberry, peach, and blueberry applesauce! SOOOO GOOOD.

Homemade applesauce is one of those easy recipes that is a good thing to start with to get your feet wet with canning for your first time and making large batches of food to preserve. It’s very hard to mess it up. Water bath canning high acid foods, like this applesauce, is a great way to learn such an easy method of preserving your own food and will quickly get you addicted and wanting to do more. An easy applesauce recipe is both rewarding and not super complicated so I always tell folks to start with that. It’s hard to be overwhelmed by 2-3 simple ingredients.

In This Post You'll Find...

Variety Of Apples Should I Use

Literally any apple makes apple sauce. They’re pretty forgiving. Select apples you enjoy the flavor of and go from there. I find that the early apples in Ohio, known as translucent, make delish applesauce that is thick with a silky-smooth texture, and super flavorful. Others I enjoy are fuji apples, but really, whatever I can get at a good price if I’m purchasing works for me. I honestly have never cared enough about it to say THIS IS THE VARIETY YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO USE, because they’re all good. Bonus points if they’re seconds and deeply discounted. You don’t need perfect apples for this recipe since we run the apples through a food mill and aren’t worried about peeling them. Those lumpy and bumpy ugly ones work fabulously!

Ways to Make This Recipe

This particular recipe gives instructions to partially cook the quartered apples in a large roaster pan until they are soft enough to run through a food mill, like the strainer attachment I have for my stand mixer or a hand crank one, for a pureed applesauce. If you don’t want to do that, you can use an apple corer and peeler to peel, core, and dice the apples and then simmer them in a stock pot or slow cooker until they are soft enough to puree with an immersion blender and then continue the recipe from there. If you prefer a chunky applesauce, I recommend peeling and coring the apples, then slice apples and dice into small pieces and placing everything into a stock pot or slow cooker to heat through and thicken and then can. Whichever way you do, the processing times stay the same!

Rebel Canning

This recipe can be considered rebel canning. This means this exact recipe has not been evaluated nor approved by the USDA or NCHFP (National Center for Home Food Preservation). Does the mean this recipe is unsafe? Sure doesn’t, as its one I and many others use and consume. What it does mean is as with any home canning, you should can at your own risk and use common sense. Make your own decisions because what I do and say I’m doing in my own home should not affect what you do in yours. If you are not comfortable with rebel canning, please don’t follow this recipe. In the end, you will have canned something you are afraid of and you will not eat it or use it and you will have essentially wasted your time and money.

Let’s make some berry applesauce!

Equipment You Might Want

Electric Roaster
Large stock pot
Food mill
Canning Mason Jars
Canning Lids & Screw Bands
Jar Funnel
Jar Lifter
Steam Canner
Water Bath Canning Pot

Ingredients

20 pounds of apples
2 pounds mixed berries, frozen or fresh
up to 1/2 cup sugar

Step 1: Prep

Wash and quarter about 20 lbs of apples. Add to a roaster pan with a few cups of water and cook at 350F for 2-3 hours, or until soft. You can also add apples to a big stock pot with water and simmer until soft. I opt to fill my roaster completely full and find it’s pretty darned close to 20 pounds. It doesn’t have to be perfect!

Run cooked apples through a food strainer or food mill.

Step 2: Cook

While processing apples through the food mill, add frozen or fresh berries to a large stock pot with up to 1/2 cup sugar; you don’t have to add any sweetener if you prefer not to because both ingredients have plenty of natural sugars. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer to soften.

Once berries are soft, add apple puree and stir.

Using an immersion blender or blending in batches in a blender or food processor, mix until smooth.

Taste and adjust sugar if needed to preferred sweetness. Add in any spices you would enjoy.

Step 3: Canning

Ladle applesauce into prepared pint or quart jars. Remove air bubbles and add more applesauce to maintain headspace if needed.

Wipe rims and add lids and bands.

Process quarts in a hot water bath canner, adding enough water to cover jars by 1 inch of water or more or steam canner for 20 minutes. Process pint jars for 15 minutes, adjusting processing time for elevation if needed.

Once processing time is up, remove lid but leave jars submerged for 5-10 more minutes to prevent siphoning.

After this time, remove jars and set aside to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.

Step 4: Storage

After cooling, remove screw bands, test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool dark place. Room temperature is fine as long as jars are not exposed to extreme temperatures. Place jars on the shelf and admire your homemade applesauce.

Shelf life is ’til you eat it. Aim to use canned goods within 2 years for best quality and nutritional value. They will last much longer than that if needed as long as the seal is intact.

Any jars that did not seal can be reprocessed or placed in the fridge to consume soon.

Notes:

Feel free to use natural or artificial sweeteners to your taste in this recipe. You can use far more sugar than I recommend if that’s your thing or replace it with honey or maple syrup. Just know these can all change the flavor profile, so taste it as you go. I just prefer my applesauce to taste like the actual fruit, not candy.

And that’s how we make regular applesauce a bit more exciting :D

Easy Homemade Mixed Berry Applesauce Canning Recipe

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 1

Cook Time: 3

Canning Time: 20

Servings: quarts

Author: Ruby – Red Feather Farm

Equipment

Electric roaster
Large Stock Pot
food mill
Canning Mason Jars
Canning lids & screw bands
jar funnel
jar lifter
steam canner
Water bath canning pot

Ingredients

20 pounds of apples
2 pounds mixed berries frozen or fresh
up to 1/2 cup sugar to taste

Instructions

Wash and quarter about 20 lbs of apples.
Add to a roaster pan with a few cups of water and cook at 350F for 2-3 hours, or until soft. You can also add apples to a big stock pot with water and simmer until soft. I opt to fill my roaster completely full and find it's pretty darned close to 20 pounds. It doesn't have to be perfect!
Run cooked apples through a food strainer or food mill.
hile processing apples through the food mill, add frozen or fresh berries to a large stock pot with up to 1/2 cup sugar; you don't have to add any sweetener if you prefer not to because both ingredients have plenty of natural sugars. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer to soften.
Once berries are soft, add apple puree and stir.
Using an immersion blender or blending in batches in a blender or food processor, mix until smooth.
Taste and adjust sugar if needed to preferred sweetness. Add in any spices you would enjoy.
Ladle applesauce into prepared pint or quart jars. Remove air bubbles and add more applesauce to maintain headspace if needed.
Wipe rims and add lids and bands.
Process quarts in a hot water bath canner, adding enough water to cover jars by 1 inch of water or more or steam canner for 20 minutes. Process pint jars for 15 minutes, adjusting processing time for elevation if needed.
Once processing time is up, remove lid but leave jars submerged for 5-10 more minutes to prevent siphoning.
After this time, remove jars and set aside to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
After cooling, remove screw bands, test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool dark place. Room temperature is fine as long as jars are not exposed to extreme temperatures.
Shelf life is 'til you eat it. Aim to use canned goods within 2 years for best quality and nutritional value. They will last much longer than that if needed as long as the seal is intact.
Any jars that did not seal can be reprocessed, frozen, or placed in the fridge to consume soon.

Notes

el free to use natural or artificial sweeteners to your taste in this recipe. You can use far more sugar than I recommend if that’s your thing or replace it with honey or maple syrup. Just know these can all change the flavor profile, so taste it as you go.