Apple-Rhubarb sauce
All summer long I have enjoyed fresh blueberries or raspberries (or both) on my muslie. I don’t mind the texture of cooked oatmeal but I once tasted this delicious mixture at a hotel for breakfast and got the recipe. I mix ½ cup each of whole flake oats and milk, plus 1-2 Tbs of vanilla yogurt and berries. It sits in a sealed container over night in the fridge and is moist and sweet the next morning. I can also take it to work to enjoy over “email” if I am in a rush.
I made cooked berries after gathering a great raspberry harvest – there are 10, one each month until next June. In the meantime, I thought of unsweetened apple sauce … but after my stolen moments with Edna Stabler and a bit of research about processing times, I realized that stewed rhubarb and applesauce have the same time for pints. I also found a recipe online for unsweetened rhubarb-pear butter on Simple Bites, which sealed the deal.
This is my method and this is the buying guide for quantities:
- 3 medium apples: 1lb (or 500g): 3 cups, cored and sliced or diced
- 4 thick or 8 skinny stalks rhubarb: 1lb: 3 cups, cut into 1″ pieces
Start with a six quart basket of apples (this is approximately 24 pieces of fruit or two 3L baskets). Wash, stem, and cut out the blossom end. Plunge into boiling water in a big kettle and boil until soft and puffy (skins will fall off). This step saves you the time of cutting and treating the fruit in lemon-water. It may take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how ripe the fruit is.
Stir occasionally so they all have equal time in the water vs floating. While hot, push through a food mill to remove the seeds and any remaining skin. Add ½ tsp cinnamon and stir to mix evenly. Let stand to thicken.
In the meantime, wash and cut fresh rhubarb into ½” pieces (6-7 cups). Pour boiling water over the raw rhubarb and let stand 5 minutes. This will pull out the tart taste so you don’t need to add extra sugar. Drain and return to a separate pot, with about ½ cup of water (to cover the bottom of the pan) to prevent sticking. Simmer until soft and starts to fall apart, stirring often (about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the age of the stalks). You may want to flavour it with orange rind but that’s optional.
FYI – for a thicker sauce, add the rhubarb to the applesauce, omitting any extra water, and cook until soft.
Pour the rhubarb mix to the applesauce, add sugar or honey to taste (if desired) and stir to evenly distribute. Bring to a boil then pour into sterilized pint jars, seal and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.
Apple is high in pectin, so these should be thick and last up to one year. I used only 4 macintosh apples (instead of 24) and 6 cups of rhubarb this time. I got 2½ pints but I expect the full recipe will get much more! The rhubarb seems to melt into half it’s volume and you loose a lot from the apples once they are cooked. My Bernardin book says you get only 8 pints from 12 lbs (or 36) apples. Seriously! That’s less than ½ cup of applesauce per apple, or 4.5 apples per pint! Keep that in mind when you are eating this too in terms of portion size!
