Applesauce is sort of ubiquitous hospital food, sometimes served (it would seem) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!! But is often too runny to be a good food for those with the potential to aspirate. And, of course, as we’ve said before, apples have peels and peels are dangerous because they can get stuck almost anywhere in the mouth or throat and then fall into the airway. But in this recipe we peel the apples and if necessary spin them through the blender to get a consistency that will form a bolus. We can serve this applesauce with whatever meal we like, but it’s also very useful as an ingredient for apple cakes (a later post). Applesauce can also be quite bland. The recipe that follows, however, is rather spicy.

Ingredients

4-6 Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or other apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch slices

3/4 cup apple juice

1/2 lemon, juiced + the zest

1/2 orange , juiced + the zest

1/4 teaspoon Quatre Epices (what I used; it’s a mixture of white pepper, ginger, cloves and nutmeg, popular in French and middle Eastern kitchens, available on line or use the recipe that follows)

Directions

Add apples, apple juice, lemon and orange juice, and Quatre Epices, and  a dash of allspice to a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer. Let cook for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender.

Mash with a potato masher, and stir in 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Transfer to a serving dish and serve warm.

This should be thick enough to use as a relatively chunky applesauce, but you may need to put it into the blender for a quick spin.

This version of applesauce ends up being quite spicy, probably from the pepper that’s in the Quatre Epice, even though we’ve used very little of it. So if it’s too spicy for your taste, then substitute the following for the Quatre Epice:

dash of allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash of nutmeg.

Quatre Epices

(from About.com French Food)

2 tablespoons ground white pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon ground cloves.

Stir together and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. Will keep for quite awhile and be useful for all sorts of recipes. I’m going to experiment with using it in a glazed carrot recipe this very weekend.