Applesauce is a perennial favorite for most babies and toddlers. This take on applesauce adds the sweetness of butternut squash for a unique puree for your baby or toddler. The addition of cinnamon and nutmeg makes this applesauce taste a little like the filling of sweet potato pie, which would make it a great recipe for when the holidays roll around again. And its prepared in the crockpot so you can work on other things in the kitchen while its cooking!
Crockpot Butternut Squash Applesauce
Author/Source:
Melissa @ onceamonthmeals.com adapted from www.insockmonkeyslippers.com
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
- 3 pounds Gala apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (optional)
- 1/4 cup water
Directions:
Note: Some babies have sensitivities to spices before 12 months, so be cautious if you have never given your baby spices. Place the apples and squash in the bowl of a crockpot with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Mix to evenly coat, and add 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 8 hours. After cooking, you may want to drain some of the excess cooking liquid. I found that more liquid than I wanted had collected in the crockpot from the apples and squash so I drained some before mashing everything together. Mash or puree to give your applesauce the consistency appropriate for your baby or toddler.
Applesauce cubes ready for the freezer.
Freezing Directions:
Transfer mixture to a nonfreezer gallon bag. Cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the bag and use it to pour/squeeze the purees into ice cube trays. DO NOT OVERFILL. Only fill each cube up to the sides and not overflowing the sides. Cover each tray with aluminum foil and label. Freeze for at least 24 hours before transferring to quart or gallon freezer bags for long-term storage.
4 Comments
Join the discussionWhat size crockpot is this designed for?
I cooked mine in a 6 quart crockpot – which worked great.
How do you warm up the food of we don’t want to use the microwave?
Hi Rosalia, You could try warming up the baby food on the stove instead of the microwave. Some like to use egg poacher cups and place the frozen baby food in the egg poacher cup, and then put that in boiling water to warm it up. Hope this helps!