Are all those apples you picked/bought threatening to blet before you get to them? Instead of or in addition to regular applesauce, consider baked applesauce, which is tasty, versatile, and easy. Don’t peel the fruit. Just wash, core, and quarter. Choose a sweetener. Could be sugar, honey, agave, brown sugar, dulce de leche, maple syrup… Maybe a little almond extract, or lemon, or cardamom, or cinnamon, or vanilla, or ginger, or a combination.
Put the chunks skin side down in a casserole dish. I can fit about 5# of apples in my 11" long, 3" deep oblong Corningware dish. Mix the fruit with the additions, or sprinkle on top if you want more caramelization. Bake at 350F for, oh, an hour-ish. Really, go by your nose. Check it when you smell baked apple. Stir it up to see how much liquid has exuded. I turn off the oven, leaving the dish in the oven for the juice to reduce on residual heat. You may want to remove some earlier, letting the remainder reduce longer.
Depending on flavorings, use it as a condiment for pork or poultry, sprinkle with granola or crumbled cookies for something akin to apple crisp, spoon it over pound cake, pancakes, latkes, or ice cream. Or just eat it up as a dismembered baked apple.
You can also divvy up a big bowl of apple pieces before baking, flavoring different smaller baking dishes differently before putting them into the oven. Or if you cook the fruit in a nonstick skillet on the stovetop, they’re done when the juices are syrupy like those that bubble from an apple pie. Whatever method, you can freeze the cooked apples for months.
