Easy Instant Pot Applesauce

The other day, my sister walked into my house and said “why does it smell like a bakery in here?!” I laughed and told her that it was applesauce making day!

Homemade applesauce is one of those things that sounds like it should be a whole project, but it really isn’t. Especially if you have an Instant Pot.

A handful of apples, a little water, five minutes of pressure cooking, and you have warm homemade applesauce that makes your whole kitchen smell like fall.

The biggest thing we’ve learned? Use a mix of sweet and tart apples. Our favorite ratio is about 2 sweet apples for every 1 tart apple. You get plenty of natural sweetness with just enough tartness to keep the applesauce from tasting flat. Most of the time, you won’t need to add any sugar at all.

This easy Instant Pot applesauce is perfect for using up a pile of fall apples, packing in lunches, serving with dinner, or turning into a simple little fall afternoon with your kids.

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What Apples Are Best for Homemade Applesauce?

You can make applesauce with almost any apple, but mixing varieties gives you a much better flavor.

Our favorite little formula is:

2 sweet apples for every 1 tart apple.

For sweeter apples, try:

Fuji
Gala
Honeycrisp
Golden Delicious
Pink Lady

Then mix in a tart apple like:

Granny Smith
Braeburn
McIntosh

You don’t need to get too particular about the exact combination. If you’re using six apples, grab four sweeter apples and two tart ones. If you’re using nine, try six sweet and three tart.

It’s an easy formula to remember when you’re standing in the produce section or picking apples at an orchard.

Easy Instant Pot Applesauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 6–8 medium apples, ideally 2 sweet apples for every 1 tart apple
• ½ cup water
• 1–2 tablespoons lemon juice, optional
• ½–1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
• Pinch of salt
• Brown sugar, granulated sugar, or maple syrup, only if needed after cooking

Instructions

1. Prep the apples.
Peel the apples if you want a really smooth, classic applesauce. You can also leave the skins on if you don’t mind a slightly more rustic texture. Core the apples and cut them into chunks.

2. Add everything to the Instant Pot.
Place the apple chunks in the Instant Pot with ½ cup water. Add the lemon juice, cinnamon, and a tiny pinch of salt.

3. Pressure cook.
Secure the lid and cook on High Pressure for 5 minutes.

4. Let the pressure release.
Allow the Instant Pot to naturally release for about 10 minutes, then carefully release any remaining pressure.

5. Mash or blend.
Open the lid and give everything a good stir. The apples should practically fall apart on their own.

For chunky applesauce, use a potato masher until it reaches the texture you like. For smooth applesauce, use an immersion blender right in the Instant Pot.

6. Taste BEFORE adding sugar.
This is important! Especially if you’ve used that 2:1 sweet-to-tart apple ratio, your applesauce may already be plenty sweet.

Taste it first. If you’d like it sweeter, stir in a little brown sugar, granulated sugar, or maple syrup until it tastes right to you.

Do I Have to Peel the Apples?

Nope!

If you want that super-smooth, traditional applesauce texture, we’d peel them. But if you don’t mind a little more texture, leave those skins right where they are and save yourself the work.

An immersion blender will break them down quite a bit after cooking, too.

Do I Need to Add Sugar?

Probably not.

That’s one of our favorite things about homemade applesauce. Apples are already naturally sweet, and choosing the right combination of varieties makes a big difference.

Rather than adding sugar before cooking, wait until the applesauce is finished and taste it first.

If it needs something, add a little sweetener then. You can always add more. You can’t take it back out.

A Few Easy Applesauce Variations

Once you have the basic recipe down, it’s really easy to play around with it. For cinnamon applesauce, use the full teaspoon of cinnamon or add a little extra after cooking. If you’d like some maple applesauce, stir in a splash of pure maple syrup after cooking. For a more fall-spiced applesauce, add a tiny pinch of nutmeg along with the cinnamon. Or leave out the spices completely and let the apples do their thing.

How to Store Homemade Applesauce

Let the applesauce cool completely, then transfer it to an airtight container or jar and keep it in the refrigerator. You can eat it cold, but we’re especially partial to it while it’s still a little warm with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon on top. And if you have kids around, don’t be surprised if a batch disappears a whole lot faster than you expected.

Make an Applesauce Day Out of It

If you’re making applesauce with kids, grab an apple-themed picture book and turn the whole thing into a simple little fall activity.

Read the book together, let everyone help prep and toss the apples into the Instant Pot, and then have warm applesauce for a snack when you’re finished.

Two books that are perfect for an applesauce day:

Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson: A cozy story about apple season and the family tradition of making applesauce.

Applesauce Day by Lisa J. Amstutz: Another sweet pick that follows a family through their own applesauce-making tradition.

It doesn’t have to be a big planned activity. A book + a batch of homemade applesauce = a pretty great fall afternoon.

Homemade Applesauce Without Making It a Whole Thing

This is exactly the kind of fall recipe we love: simple, cozy, and easy enough that making it with the kids doesn’t turn into an all-day kitchen project.

Just remember the little apple trick:

2 sweet apples + 1 tart apple.

Throw everything in the Instant Pot, let it do the work, grab an apple book while you wait, and before long you’ll have warm homemade applesauce ready to eat.

If you make it, let us know what combination of apples you used! We’re always looking for good ideas to pass along to our sisters.

X.o.
The Threads Between Sisters

Check out some of our other favorite fall activities HERE and HERE.