Happy Fall! Homemade Spiced Applesauce

Today is the first day of my favorite season, fall! I love fall for an endless list of reasons...its football season, (hotdogs, cheeseburgers, nachos and beer? yes please!) cool weather, the leaves and colors outside are beautiful (I'm drawn to warm colors), Halloween (getting to dress up, scary movies and CANDY!), Thanksgiving (duh), fashion (theres nothing I'm more comfortable in, aside from my cupcake apron, than a cardigan and a pair of booties), and my birthday (10/9/1987, it counts down, kinda cool huh? yeah I think so).

I wanted to make something to celebrate the coming of my favorite season and decided on a homemade applesauce. I was torn between that and baking something with pumpkin (as it is one of my favorites) but I figured I have all of October and November to use pumpkin (and I will, and you will get sick of it but I will not apologize). I think homemade applesauce is totally appropriate for fall. I always grew up eating cinnamon on my applesauce (never without!) and thought I would try to recreate that with a little more holiday spice!

This was comforting to eat and just warmed my soul. It's incredibly easy so try it! Also, I was just making it for myself so I only made enough for 2 servings...but this can be easily multiplied. Oh and one more thing, most homemade applesauce recipes want you to peel the apple but I was intrigued to leave the peel on and see how it worked out, believe it or not, I don't hate it! I just pureed half, and kept half of the chunks so that it wasn't too chunky. If you make this, prepare for your house to smell like fall, its amazing.

Homemade Spiced Applesauce
Dame Good

Ingredients:

2 apples (use any sweet apple), cored and diced
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon agave nectar (I wanted to leave out the sugar as the apples are plenty sweet on their own but felt agave nectar would be an interesting and more healthy alternative to sugar)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cover. Heat over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until apples are tender. When cooked, divide the apples in half. Puree half of the apples in a food processor and smash the other half with a fork. Combine the two mixtures and stir together. Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and serve warm.

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