Canning: Spiced Canned Apples

Spiced Canned Apples

I’ve been canning a lot this year, mostly things from my garden. I wanted to make some spiced canned apples, I don’t have an apple tree. I priced of apples at the store and decided to forget it, until my good friend John gave me a bag of gleaned apples from the tree in the Dodd Lake campground.

Using free gleaned apples.

I’ve made spiced canned apples before, but looked at recipe online for ideas, then used the tested one from my Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook.

I peeled and sliced the apples, placing them in water with lemon juice to retard browning.

I chose to make medium sugar syrup. Next time I’ll use thin syrup to make them less sweet. Here are the proportions from the cookbook:

Sugar Syrups for Canning
Type	Sugar Cups	Water Cups	Yield
Thin	2	4	5
Medium	3	4	5 ½
Heavy	4 ¾	4	6 ½

Draining apples.

I put 6 cups of water and 4 ½ cups of sugar (one and a half time the medium amount) to make sure I would have enough for all of my apples. I heated it to boiling in a large pot and added spices (1 teaspoon allspice and 2 teaspoons cinnamon) tied in cheesecloth. This kept the dark ground spices out, but allowed the flavours to infuse the syrup.

Cooking the apples in syrup.

Next I drained the sliced apples, added them to the boiling syrup, and cooked them for 5 minutes. In the meantime I was preparing my water bath canner and sterilizing my pint jars. To keep the jars warm until the moment of filling, I put them in the oven at 250°F.

Filling canning jars.

Just before filling, I added one cut to fit cinnamon stick to each jar. I ladled the cooked apples into each jar and filled them with hot syrup to ½” head space remaining. Sterilized lids and rings closed each jar, and they were processed in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Into the water bath canner for 15 mintues.

After five minutes rest in the hot canner, they were placed on a towel to cool and seal. I love to hear that distinctive snap.

I had enough apples for five pints with a little bit extra, and there was syrup left over. I decided to add a few more diced apples to cook down into applesauce.

Mashing remaining apples for applesauce.

I simmered them in the sauce and then used a potato masher to make chunky sauce. I filled half-pint jars with ¼” head space they went into the water bath canner for fifteen minutes.

Waste not, want not. I use propane tanks to power my stove, so reusing a large pot of hot water is a real savings.

Five pints of Spiced Canned Apples and three half-pints of chunky applesauce.

Now I have five pint of spiced apples and three half-pints of applesauce to enjoy as winter progresses. And, I know where to go next year to get even more apples. Thanks John! -- Margy