I mentioned that we took a trip to the apple orchard. Well, those lovely apples were mostly planned for applesauce and we made one large batch yesterday. All of us, together. I peeled, Dan cored and sliced, Cecily passed the apples to Dan, and Aneliese washed them, put the sliced ones in the bowl, and tossed the cores. Cecily may have taken bites regularly as she was handing them over and Aneliese may have take a slice from each ones as she put in the bowl but it still only took us about an hour to prep 40 lbs. The cooking down is so simple since you just fill the pot, turn to medium/low heat, and give a stir every so often until it has turned to mush. Usually I freeze some and can some but this year I am going the canning way (it will likely be the only thing that I can this year). I splurged and finally picked up two handy (and inexpensive) little gadgets that made canning the applesauce so much easier and faster. Seriously, why have I said I need them for six years but not bought them?

Fancy gadgets that every one who can MUST have: a funnel and jar lifter/tongs...so important.

some finished jars of applesauce

Sadly, the towel that I set down was apparently not thick enough and now our table shows some canning evidence. Oh well.

The spots now on my table.

And finally, with the remnants of applesauce that didn’t fit in a jar, our morning pancakes were made. I imagine that there are many recipes out there very similar… I basically followed this one but made up my own GF mix and a few tweaks. Truly they were fluffy and delicious.

tasty applesauce pancakes

Applesauce Pancakes

Ingredients (Makes about 18-20 4″ ish Pancakes)
Time: 30 minutes

• 280 grams GF flour mix  (I did 130 g Sorghum, 120 g Tapioca Flour, 30g Sweet White Rice Flour) or 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp Cream of Tartar  (I had run out of baking powder so this was the substitute but I really liked how it worked; you would just use 3 tsp of baking powder)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, lightly mix together the eggs, applesauce, and buttermilk. Add the applesauce mixture to the dry mixture. Stir just until everything is moistened, taking care not to overmix (not that this is really a problem with the GF mix) the batter (lumps are okay). Allow it to rest for a few minutes.

Use a lightly greased griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 cup pancake batter for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot with your favorite toppings; we used some applesauce and maple syrup.