Instant Pot Applesauce

What makes fall? Pumpkin and apples. One of our most favorite fall activities is heading out to the apple orchard to pick apples. We have several in our area that are just wonderful. It’s a great day of picking apples followed by some fresh pressed cider and donuts. Then we usually head home to do our canned applesauce as a family. We typically end up with extra apples that we use for eating, baking, etc. I love our canned applesauce but every once in awhile I want a chunky hot applesauce. When it’s cold and windy outside I turn to this instant pot applesauce as a comfort food. 

What Kind of Apples to Use? 

Honestly, my favorite way to make this is by using a bunch of different kinds of apples. I use whatever I have in my fridge! Macintosh and Golden Delicious are typically known to be the best for applesauce. When we can our applesauce we use the Macintosh. However, we have friends with trees and they let us pick them for free so we also got some golden delicious apples too. Each apple variety has a different level of sweetness and that is what will make a variation in your recipe. Honeycrisp, for instance, is a very sweet apple that I think would almost make too sweet of a treat. 

Stovetop vs. Instant Pot

The old fashioned way to make this chunky applesauce is on the stovetop. There are days when I will do that too, but, mostly I make it in the instant pot. It’s so simple to put these in and just let it cook while I’m doing other things. Applesauce on the stove does have a homemade essence to it that makes it desirable, but it can also be time consuming. I like to balance both worlds and this instant pot applesauce is just that. Still made with wholesome ingredients but cooked a little more easily. 

Peeling Apples

This recipe calls for peeled apples. I know, I know that part is the worst. There are all kinds of gizmos and gadgets that will make the process so much more simple though. I like to use my Kitchenaid attachments to peel,core, and slice them all at the same time. It’s such a huge time saver for me. To be honest though, there are also times when I don’t even peel my apples. If you use an immersion blender when they are done it will break up the skins. If you just use the potato masher the skins will probably still be lingering around. We don’t mind them and I appreciate the ease of cooking them with the skins on so I thought I would give you the option. 

Ingredients for Instant Pot Applesauce:

• Apples
• Cinnamon
• Water

Directions

• Peel ,core, and slice your apples. The more apples you use, the more sauce you will make. I used around 8 apples for this batch and it made enough as a side for dinner plus quite a bit of leftovers. 
• Put the apples in your instant pot.
• Add 1 cup of water. (Scale this based on how many apples you are using).
• Sprinkle cinnamon on top of your apples. No real measurement here. I just add enough to give a good coating to my apples. If I had to take a guess it would be about 1 tsp of cinnamon.
• Pressure cook for 8 minutes. You can either naturally release or controlled release, either is fine. 

If you want your applesauce more smooth you can also use a potato masher when they are finished. They will come out pretty chunky still but the potato masher will break up some of the bigger chunks. 

This instant pot applesauce will have your whole house smelling absolutely delicious. It’s a great side for dinner or even great eaten as a dessert. Now, for the big one, do you prefer your applesauce cold or warm? In our house, we like both which is what makes this recipe a staple around here!

Instant Pot Applesauce

The quickest and easiest way to make applesauce.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 9 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 8 Apples
• 2 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 Cup Water

Instructions

 

• Peel, core, and slice your apples
• Put the apple slices in your instant pot.
• Add 1 cup of water.
• Sprinkle cinnamon on top of your apple slices so there is a good layer on them.
• Pressure cook for 8 minutes.
• You can manually release or naturally release.
• Use a potato masher to mash your apples into a sauce.

Notes

You don’t have to peel the apples but you will taste them in the finished product because the potato masher doesn’t break them up.

 

This makes a decent size batch but you could just fill the instant pot if you wanted. Scale up the water and cinnamon and add time based on if you double or triple the recipe.

 

If you want super smooth applesauce you could also use an immersion blender. I prefer to keep my hot applesauce a little more chunky (like my grandma use to do).

Keyword Apple, Fall