The Delicious Way To Sweeten Up Applesauce Without Sugar

For those of you who love applesauce, you probably already prefer homemade to store-bought — after all, isn't almost everything better when it's homemade? Aside from tasting delicious, a major perk of making applesauce at home is the ability to control exactly what goes into it, including the amount of sugar. In fact, you can even eliminate sugar altogether in your next batch.

This sweet and spiced applesauce recipe offers the perfect sugar alternative: maple syrup. Indeed, there is absolutely no added sugar in this recipe. Instead, it relies solely on the natural sugars from the maple syrup and some additional ingredients, such as orange juice and vanilla extract, for all the necessary sweetness.

Additionally, as the recipe states, you can even convert this applesauce into a filling for an apple pie. This means you can bake an apple pie completely free of added sugar, which is a stark contrast to typical apple pie recipes that usually include up to one cup of added sugar.

Maple syrup is a great way to use a natural sweetener in applesauce or other dishes, but it's not the only option. There are plenty of sweeteners for cooking that aren't sugar, including options such as honey and coconut sugar.

Honey is an excellent choice; it's not only sweet and delicious but also rich in antioxidants. To substitute honey for sugar in baking recipes, use either ½ or ⅔ cup of honey for every one cup of sugar, as honey is actually sweeter than sugar and therefore requires less.

Coconut sugar is also a reliable option. Made by extracting sap from coconut blooms and then heating it, coconut sugar is produced after the liquid evaporates. You can replace it one-to-one with the amount of sugar specified in a recipe, although you may need to process it in a food processor to achieve a similar texture, as coconut sugar is a bit coarser.