Homemade, High-Fiber, Sugar-Free Strawberry Applesauce
This delicious homemade, healthy, sugar-free, strawberry applesauce is so easy to make! NOTE: I have a NEW more detailed post about this unique method of making applesauce. Check it out.
Applesauce with a Twist
When I was growing up, there was only one flavor of applesauce. Apple flavor. But now applesauce comes in all sorts of flavors – strawberry being the most popular.
Some store-bought flavored applesauce is healthy, but much of it isn’t. Making your own naturally-flavored applesauce is a better choice.
Strawberries add some nice flavor to applesauce. Plus they make the applesauce a pretty pink color. (If you just want apple applesauce, check out my post for the How to Make the Best Applesauce Ever.)
This healthy, homemade applesauce is much different than any other applesauce you’ve ever had. It’s thick and rich and luscious. And it’s creamier and smoother than most applesauce. Plus it’s sweet and still sugar-free.
A Healthier Applesauce
Applesauce wouldn’t exactly be what I would call a high-fiber food. In fact, most applesauce that you can buy has very little fiber at all. But fiber is an important ingredient for weight loss.
So how to make a healthier applesauce? Well, apples are high in fiber, but most of the fiber is in the skins. When you peel the apples, you remove lots of nutrients – including fiber. But I don’t like skins in my applesauce!
The secret to making high-fiber applesauce is to keep the skins on the apples but then blend it at just the right time. The pureed skins make the applesauce richer and creamier. But no one will ever know you left the skins on. This applesauce is so good!
Easy Applesauce Recipe
This recipe is also very easy. Just 2 healthy ingredients and a few minutes of your time and you can make applesauce that’s not only yummy but also healthy. And pretty too!
FAQ
For the most delicious and flavorful applesauce, I recommend Braeburn, Cortland, McIntosh, Gala, and Golden Delicious apple varieties. Golden Delicious apple are especially good as they makes a nice, sweet applesauce. Combining 2 or 3 varieties makes and extra good, extra flavorful applesauce.
Avoid using tart applesauce in this sauce since we won’t be adding any sugar.
I don’t recommend Fuji apples for applesauce. They are sweet, but they don’t cook down well. And they end up a bit watery too.
Also, avoid using Red Delicious for applesauce. Unless you like bland mush.
Yes! If you use sweet apples, the natural sugars in the apples cook down to make a wonderfully sweet homemade applesauce. You won’t miss the sugar in this sauce.
Normally, yes. However, with this special method of making applesauce, you don’t have to peel the apples! So much easier! And it saves time!
How to Eat this Sugar-Free Strawberry Applesauce
We love sugar-free Strawberry Applesauce and nut butter on toast. Wonderful Waffles are fabulous smothered with hot or cold applesauce. And I often spoon generous dollops of applesauce spooned over my granola.
More Healthy Apple Recipes
Here are some more delicious and healthy apple recipes.
Homemade, High-Fiber, Sugar-Free Strawberry Applesauce
Ingredients
- 9 medium apples
- 6 to 10 medium fresh or frozen strawberries - The amount depends on whether you want your applesauce to have a strong strawberry flavor or just a subtle one.
- 1/3 cup water or apple juice
Instructions
- Wash apples. No need to remove peel!
- Place water or juice in a large, heavy bottomed pot and begin heating.
- Cut apples off the core into large pieces and place pieces in pan.
- Cover and bring to boil over medium high heat. Stir often! Watch closely so that apples don’t scorch. You can add more liquid if you’d like, but the more liquid you add, the less flavor the applesauce will have.
- Cook until apples are soft. The amount of time will depend on what kind of apples you have. Cortlands can take as little as 5 minutes, but other varieties can take up to 30 minutes.
- Remove lid and allow to cool slightly.
- Scoop some of the warm apple mixture into blender jar, filling the jar only one-third to one-half full. (Do not fill more than halfway, as it can be dangerous to blend hot foods if the blender is too full. Be sure to follow the instructions below to avoid burns while blending hot foods.)
- Add as many strawberries as you’d like. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT BLENDING HOT FOOD: Blending hot food can be dangerous. Be sure to follow these instructions to prevent burns. (Read this post for more info about blending hot liquids.)
- Place lid on blender and remove center piece (feeder cap) of blender lid. Place a clean towel over the blender lid. (Removing the center piece of the blender lid allows the steam from the hot applesauce to escape, thus preventing an “explosion” of food out of the top of the blender. And placing a towel over top prevents little splashes of applesauce from flying out and splattering all over your kitchen walls.)Hold lid firmly in place, but be sure steam has a way of escape.Begin at a low speed and gradually increase the speed, blending until very, very smooth. (This may take several minutes unless you have.)The applesauce should be silky smooth and creamy with no visible pieces of skin.
- Pour applesauce into a container. Repeat procedure with remaining apples and strawberries. Store in refrigerator.
Notes
>> One quick request: if you like this recipe, please leave a rating and a comment. Ratings help more people find these healthy recipes!
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This is really good. Leaving the skins on the apples makes it richer and creamier. Definitely my favorite way to make applesauce!
Good info. Lucky me I found your site by chance (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved as a favorite for later!
It looks so delicious, I’ll try it too. Thank you for the recipe, I am sure it will taste very good.
How do you remove the sugar from the apples? I’m making dog biscuits for my Golden Retriever and I want to include applesauce, but apples have way too much sugar. Thanks!