One of the greatest activities for a toddler is cooking in the kitchen! It's a great way to practice fine motor skills, to see how simple things can be turned into complex things, and well, it's just yummy all around. And what better to make than apple sauce...in the slow cooker!
It all started with a trip to the apple orchard....
My little guy had a wonderful time picking apples from the tree and ground, loading them into the buckets and running through the orchard trees. Crooked Run Orchard in Virginia is beautiful with SO many different kinds of apples. We ended up with so many apples that even after sharing them with a friend, we definitely needed to do something with them. So, with my son's (and my) love for pure and simple applesauce, his first big cooking event was inevitable!
I am a firm believer in purity when it comes to cooking, particularly when it comes to applesauce. The fruit has enough sugar on it's own and great taste, so we didn't really need to add anything! We started with ten apples (of varying types which adds to better and more interesting flavor in the applesauce) which filled exactly 1 quart jar in the end.
First, I peeled the apples while he napped (18 month olds are impatient I've learned), but I saved one to peel in front of him so he could see the whole process. When he is a little older (2.5 to 3, depending on his skill level at the time), I will find a small peeler and let him help.
On our kitchen table, I set up cutting boards for each of us. He also had tongs and his own small bowl to place the apples that he cut into them. He also had a small little knife for cutting.
Honestly, I wasn't happy with this knife. It was harder for him to use at this age (a year older and he would have been fine). I know a wavy vegetable chopper would have been much better, but I could only find one online and it didn't arrive in time. So we made do. In the end, I think he ate more than he cut anyway!
After he cut the apples, he used the tongs to move them to the little bowl at his side. Smaller tongs would have been better too, but he's pretty skilled at this and so these worked out. I'd recommend small light tongs for a beginner.
After all the apples we cut into 1 inch pieces, we put our apples together and he used a spoon to transfer the apples to the slow cooker bowl.
We placed the bowl into the slow cooker and he helped me put the lid on. You don't need water or anything really, the apples have so much natural sugar and juice. I did end up adding less than 1 tsp of brown sugar to the whole batch because I was worried the apples needed a trigger to carmelize...but next time, I plan on doing without the sugar as well. If you like cinnamon in your applesauce, you could add a few cinnamon sticks into the slow cooker as well. I set the slow cooker on low for overnight (it was 3 pm at the time and I set it so it would finish after we woke up, so it ended up being 17 hours). Stirring the apples occasionally is a good idea, too.
Afterwards, we had a snack of applesauce I had on hand, just so there would be some conclusion for him as to what happened (since it wouldn't be until the morning that he'd see the final product).
The next morning I scooped these lovely caramelized and mushy apples into a bowl. They smelled amazing!
My son mashed them up with a potato masher and voila, we had applesauce! It didn't take much mashing at all. If you like it chunky you wouldn't have to mash it, and if you like it super smooth, I recommend a hand blender to finish the deal.
The final product was YUMMY!! From now on, I'm making all our applesauce this way. It's fantastic and healthy. I was also amazed at how my son connected this whole process. Days later, when he sees the slow cooker he points at it and says "apples" :).
I'm excited to try more recipes!
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