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Naturally sweet (with no added sugar), and so delicious, this recipe for Instant Pot Apple Sauce is a must for when you return with arms full of apples from the orchards this fall. Once you make apple sauce in the Instant Pot, you’ll never go back!
How to Make Apple Sauce in the Instant Pot
There is no doubt that homemade apple sauce is way better than anything you can buy in the store and honestly not that hard to do. And is a must make in the fall. But did you know that making it in the Instant Pot makes it super easy? Well, we’ve been making it in our favorite gadget lately and we’re likely never going back to making it on the stove top. I just love how hands-off this method is of cooking it, and I love the way the instant pot transforms the apples.
After you make this apple sauce, be sure to check out the rest of our Favorite Apple Recipes!
Instant Pot Apple Sauce Ingredients
Here is an overview of the ingredient list. Keep scrolling for the full recipe.
- Apples
- Water or Apple Cider
- Lemon Juice
- Ground Cinnamon or Cinnamon Sticks (optional)
How to Customize It
You can let your creativity run wild when it comes to apple sauce!
Spice it up: You can add in different spices such as ginger or turmeric.
Mix up the fruit: You can even add in some other fruit with it, such as pear or late season strawberries.
Want to make this as some purees for babies? You can add in some veggies such as butternut squash. Just be sure if you are adding something such as butternut squash that you cut the pieces pretty small so it cooks in the same amount of time that the apples do.
Which Apples to Use
While all apples taste delicious, different apples perform better for cooking, eating and baking. And they all have different sugar content. But for this recipe, since we’re cooking the apples down and they will be close to a puree, we have a lot more freedom to use what apples we want.
The most important thing to pay attention to is the sweetness level. There is really no need to add any sugar to apple sauce, since apples are naturally sweet, but if you want a very sweet apple sauce, make sure to use sweet apples.
Want it a bit more tart? Use apples with less sugar such as Granny Smith’s.
It’s a great idea to use a mix of apples for a variety of texture and flavor, or you can just pick one variety.
Some of our favorites for this apple sauce is a mix of Gala, Fuji and Honeycrisp.
How to Make Instant Pot Apple Sauce
We love how easy this recipe is.
It’s as simple as:
- preparing the apples by peeling, coring and dicing them
- adding them to the Instant Pot along with lemon and water (or cider) and any spices
- and cooking it up!
You do not need to peel the apples if you don’t want to. The peels add color and nutritional value to the apple sauce. However if you don’t peel it, you will need to puree it after.
The apples are cooked for 5 minutes with a natural pressure release of 10 minutes. The apples should be super soft and all you need to do is use a whisk or a potato masher to “puree” them. I like apple sauce with a bit of texture to it, but you can certainly puree it totally with an immersion blender too.
There are two options for making the apple sauce in terms of how thin you want the resulting sauce to be. The sauce featured in these photos was made using ¾ cup of water. If you wanted thicker apple sauce, you can reduce it down to ½ cup of added liquid.
Ground cinnamon will color the apple sauce, just like in our photos. If you wanted to avoid that but still wanted that cinnamon flavor, you could cook the apples with a cinnamon stick.
How to Store Your Apple Sauce
Let the hot apple sauce cool completely before you store it.
Fridge: Once cooled, cover it in an air tight container (mason jars work perfect for this) and it will keep in the refrigerator for about 7-10 days.
Freezer: You can also store apple sauce in the freezer in an air tight container for up to 6 months.
Looking for more apple recipes? Check these out:
- Easy Slow Cooker “Baked” Apples
- Skillet Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
- Gluten Free Apple Muffins
- Gluten Free Apple Pie Bars
- Gluten Free Apple Pie
And, don’t forget to check out more of our Instant Pot Recipes!
Watch the video:
Instant Pot Apple Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. apples we recommend gala and fuji
- ¾ cup water or apple cider see note
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Peel, cored and dice apples into large chunks (about 2” pieces).
- Place apples, water, lemon juice and cinnamon inside the Instant Pot. Close the lid, and switch the valve to sealing. Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, with a natural pressure release of 10 minutes.
- Switch the valve to venting to release any remaining steam.
- Using a whisk or a masher, mix together the apples until they are all broken up (alternatively you can puree them).
- Transfer apple sauce to a bowl or serving containers. Serve warm or let cool completely and serve cold.
- Apple sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 7-10 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
