Crock Pot Cinnamon Applesauce

I love pumpkin as much as the next girl, but I think the apple has taken quite the underrated back seat over the last couple years. There's not much that will make you feel more like fall has arrived than making your own applesauce in the crock pot and getting to smell its cinnamony goodness all day long.

Ingredients:
10-12 small apples OR 6-7 large apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice

Peel, core, and cut apples into small squares. Put all ingredients in the crock pot on high for 5 hours and stir occasionally.

The original recipe asked you to blend the apples after the 5 hours had passed. I opted to not lug out a whole other appliance - what's the point of a crock pot if not to have very little work for me? - so I used my trusty potato masher instead. I went the whole first year of our marriage without using it at all and now I have two whole recipes for it! (Someday I might even use it on actual potatoes.)

After 5 hours and lots of occasional stirring and mashing, here's the final product.

It doesn't look that pretty, I know, but it was super yummy and smelled even yummier. Hello fall!

Notes:
Even though I had 10 medium-sized apples - you think you're capable of eating far more than reality when you're standing in the middle of Costco - I decided to use only 7 because my crock pot was filling up pretty fast. It really does reduce a lot over the course of its time in the crock, though, so I think in the future I'll put more in after all. I also didn't peel the apples, because I simply skipped over that line in the directions. It turned out fine, but I will probably peel them in the future just because the occasional piece of apple skin is annoying.

This was super yummy, but it also would have been extra super yummy with some vanilla ice cream. Mmmm...next time.