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Try these recipes with applesauce to make the most of this versatile fruit puree! Cakes, muffins, and brownies are all better with applesauce.

Instant Pot Applesauce
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Got a jar of applesauce and not sure how to use it up? This versatile ingredient is not just for snacking! Applesauce is a well-known substitute for oil and eggs in baking — and it’s intentionally included in lots of baked good recipes to make them perfectly moist. And some of the best recipes with applesauce call for it as the star ingredient: like our family favorite applesauce cake: moist, fluffy and light, and perfectly spiced.

Here are all the best recipes with applesauce to use up a jar…or to get your applesauce fix! Cakes, muffins, brownies, and cookies are all more perfect with applesauce (we think).

And now…the best recipes with applesauce!

Make your own applesauce!

Now, you probably already know this. But the best applesauce in the world? Homemade applesauce! The homemade version can’t hold a candle to the store bought stuff. Here are a few of our favorite ways to make it:

  • Stovetop Applesauce All you need is a 45 minutes, apples and a cinnamon stick. The flavor is out of this world!
  • Instant Pot Applesauce Even quicker! You can make applesauce in an instant in a pressure cooker: it takes just 25 minutes total time.
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12 Tasty Recipes with Applesauce

How to make applesauce cake
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This applesauce cake is perfectly moist, scented with cinnamon and brown sugar. And you mix the entire dough in the cake pan! No mixing bowls required.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 12 pieces 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup firmly packed cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 egg
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
  • ½ cup unsweetened applesauce (or homemade applesauce)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
  2. Put the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the baking pan. Use a fork to thoroughly mix the ingredients together.
  3. Use your hands to make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients. Into the hole, crack the egg and add the olive oil, yogurt, applesauce, and vanilla. Use a fork to mix the ingredients together until smooth and blended. Smooth the top of the batter with the side of a butter knife.
  4. Bake until the cake is fairly firm when you press lightly at its center and a toothpick inserted in the middle has no wet batter sticking to it, 25 to 30 minutes.
  5. Remove from the oven and leave on the counter to cool completely, 1 hour. Leave the cake in the pan. Dust with powdered sugar. Cut into pieces and use a small spatula to lift them from the pan.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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  1. Mary Jo Bauder says:

    Are the recipes I subscribed to, free? Thanks; looking forward to getting them. Mary Jo

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Yes! The site is free and ad-supported.