This easy homemade pressure cooker applesauce recipe is a great healthy snack for kids and adults. Sprinkled with cinnamon and some oats, it’s a great way to use fresh apples into a healthy dessert everyone will love. Make it in your Instant Pot, Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi tonight.
Owning an Instant Pot is a learning process, even when I’ve used it for over a year. When I made this homemade pressure cooker applesauce for the first time I was amazed at how easy it was to make! It’s not just great for babies but my girls who are 9-17 years old just love applesauce and this one turned out great. It’s one of their favorite snacks on our Instant Pot recipes post. (originally published 5/18, affiliate links present)
I first made this Instant Pot apple crisp and OH MY was it the most amazing thing ever!!
Then I had more apples and made some pressure cooker applesauce with very little sugar. The apples had enough sweetness for us and the oats gave it a nice texture.
Of course if you’re making this for Instant Pot baby food you’d want to omit that to make it nice and smooth. 😉
Now you can choose whichever type of apples you like and each variety definitely brings a different taste to this Instant Pot applesauce. Green apples are going to be a bit tart, fuji are great if you want it as naturally sweet as possible.
If you want just the natural sweetness you can omit the brown sugar entirely and it will still have a sweetness to it. Just the little bit I added was great for our tastebuds.
If you’re looking for a homemade treat/snack that is ready in no time at all this is a great choice.
After you enjoy this, try our Instant Pot cranberry apple sauce too!
- If you want to make slow cooker homemade applesauce we’ve done that too. It just takes longer. Pressure cooking takes a fraction of the time.
This is what you need to make easy pressure cooker applesauce
- 7 apples – any variety, peeled, cored, and sliced (the thicker you slice them the chunkier it will be)
- Apple corer and apple peeler are handy
- Brown sugar
- Rolled oats – I didn’t use instant oats
- Maple syrup – I used real syrup
- Apple cider – you could use apple juice but this brings more flavor
- Cinnamon
- Butter
- Immersion blender if you want it really smooth
- or use traditional blender once apples are room temperature to reach desired consistency
This is how simple it is to make. It’s a great cooking activity to do with your kids in the kitchen too!
Start with going to the store to find a bunch of apples. We like green because they are a bit more firm. Golden delicious will be softer which is great if you prefer it to be very smooth. Some like a bit of lemon juice as well to prevent browning. We don’t really care about that so we skip it.
- Once you’ve followed the directions below to make Instant Pot applesauce and do a quick release you’re going to blend the apples. That is IF you don’t just want it super chunky like we do. Really it comes out so soft that many times I just give it a firm stir and it’s broken up enough for us. Keep in mind my kids are much older though.
If you want to blend it smooth then use your immersion blender right in your pot. Or allow it to cool down and pour it into your “regular” blender like this. A quick pulse will smooth it out.
Pressure Cooker Applesauce
Ingredients
- 2 lbs apples about 7 apples is what we used, peeled, cored, chopped
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1/2 c rolled oats optional - (if feeding very young babies leave out as it makes it chunkier)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup real syrup is best
- 1/4 c apple cider
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tbsp butter melted
Instructions
- Remove skins from apples, or leave just a bit on if you want a little texture., slice pcs. 1/4" thick.
- Put sliced apples in pressure cooker.
- Pour apple cider and maple syrup on top.
- Sprinkle brown sugar and oats (optional, not quick oats) on top of that, sprinkle cinnamon on top.
- Pour melted butter on top of everything.
- Put lid on and close steam valve.
- Set to pressure high for 8 minutes (times vary a bit depending on type of apple, and thickness you have cut your apple slices). Picture shows 8 minutes.
- Do a quick release. Apples should be so soft that they don't even have to be blended, just stir and you have perfect homemade applesauce.
- Or use an immersion blender to make very smooth.
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Cindy says
Is there a way to Incorporate peaches into it for peach applesauce. Thank you
The Typical Mom says
Hmmmm you’d probably be fine to add one diced into the pot as well.
Danna says
I love applesauce. Growing up we had apple trees in our backyard. I don’t know what type of apples they were but we always had applesauce. I don’t like plain apples so I’m always making applesauce. I discovered I could make it in my instant pot and freeze it. I don’t put anything extra in because I like the sweetness without extras. I will definitely try this maybe without the sugar. Thank you so much for the recipe.