I wish I could give you measurements on this one, but if you know my style of cooking, you know it's pretty hard to do, it's trial, error, taste...and as for apples, you just can't be sure that one is going to taste like the others.
Before I even cut my apples, I get my largest stainless steel pot going on the oven so I am able to properly can my applesauce.*
So as I am cutting my apples and throwing them into my dutch oven, I put a little lemon juice into the bottom of it to keep the apples from browning, which I realize is unnecessary because its applesauce, but I do that with my apple pie, so it's just what I do. I like my applesauce to taste like apple pie, with a little bit of chunks in it. I buy a bushel of Cortlands and go to town! I have an all-in-one apple peeler, corer, slicer and it makes the job get done so much faster! After they come off that, I cut the already slim loops in half and it makes my cooking time so much faster. I do cut out any huge chunks of peel that may be left behind, but small pieces just add flavor and aren't worth wasting.
When my dutch oven is full, (approx 15-18 good size apples), I start off with 1 cup of sugar and I am going to say 2 tbsp of cinnamon because I really just sprinkle until it looks good. I know you are thinking, where is the nutmeg?? Not in this batch because I didn't have it on hand and it tastes just as good without it. If you are using nutmeg I would go a lot easier then with the cinnamon.
Then I throw it on top of the oven, give it a good stir, put the lid on it and let it cook for about 10 minutes. By now my apples are getting soft so I am able to take a spoon and give some of the mush a taste. This is when I readjust my sugar or cinnamon. When the apples are really soft, I get out my potato masher, throw on a hand-cover pot holder because steam burn is NOT fun and I start smashing. You could use an immersion blender, I have one, it's doing a good job holding its own next to my seal-a-meal in the pantry ;) There are going to be little chunks left behind and that's the best part. I then give it another taste (with a clean spoon, these are not only going to get eaten throughout the winter but passed out to friends and family), and see if it needs any more sugar or cinnamon. Sometimes I need to do another round of mashing, sometimes it's just fine. If you are using my "recipe" you are going to end up tasting it about 4 times, the total cook time is about 22-25 minutes. When it looks and tastes like a nice, mildly chunky, apple-pie tasting applesauce: you know you are ready to fill your jars and get them ready to last the winter. This part I like to have a partner with because filling the jars and then wiping off the tops so there isn't going to be anything sticky around the lid takes a while. If my sister is around, she is the jar top wiper, otherwise it's my significant other. (if you make a mess on the lid, clean it, if it dribbles down the jar, don't fuss about it, that will just wash away in your canning water). I usually do two batches in a day because by then I'm exhausted and that yields about 14, 8 oz canning jars. I use the 8 oz jars only because I make homemade jelly and those are the size that are left over. Although this round, as you can see, I ran out of the 8 oz and used some 16 oz jars that I had left over from homemade spaghetti sauce.
Now get to your local orchard (or grocery store if you don't have 10 of them within a 20 minute drive like I do) and get to making some applesauce!
*I can using the boiling method. I take a stainless steel pot, fill it with enough water to cover the tops of my jars by about an inch and get it boiling. I let my jars boil in there for 10 minutes. 5 minutes will do, but I have always done 10. There are recommendations on the internet on how long you should boil based off what you are canning, but this topic is about applesauce. Presto! You have canned applesauce that you can snack on all throughout the winter with plenty to pass out to your friends and neighbors.
