Instant Pot Applesauce
Fall is the best time for Instant Pot applesauce! Make the most of your apple haul with this sweet-tart, cinnamon-spiced snack or dessert made in the pressure cooker.
Fill your kitchen with the smell of apples simmering in cinnamon! With this recipe for homemade applesauce, you can walk away from your pot and let the pressure cooker do the work.
At my house, I love to make a big batch of Instant Pot applesauce. I keep it on hand for a healthy afterschool snack or a low-sugar dessert. It’s especially wonderful fresh out of the pressure cooker, but you can serve it hot or cold.
Update: Apple season is here again, so we’ve updated our applesauce Instant Pot post with new photos and info, including the best apples for applesauce. Enjoy!
How to Make Applesauce in an Instant Pot
This applesauce recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
This recipe is easy to customize!
We usually take the skins off because my kids don’t like them in the sauce. However, feel free to leave all or some of the skins on. An apple peeler is a great tool to make short work of a pile of apples.
After pressure cooking, you can blend the sauce your desired smoothness.
- For a very smooth consistency, use an immersion blender right in the pot for the easiest clean-up. A standing blender or a food mill will also work.
- If you like a chunkier texture, like in the pictures, use a potato masher on some or all of the apples.
Best Apples for Instant Pot Applesauce
The key to balanced applesauce is using both sweet and tart apples, to ensure it’s not overly sweet or sour.
My favorite apples to cook with are Golden Delicious (sweet) and Granny Smith (tart). However, there are dozens of delicious apple varieties you can find at your local grocery store or farmer’s market.
🍎 Sweet apples include
- Gala
- Golden Delicious
- Fuji
- Envy (my kids call these Jealous apples)
- Jonagold
🍏 More tart apples include
- Granny Smith
- Pink Lady
- Rome
- Jazz
- Honeycrisp
⚠️ Note: If possible, avoid Red Delicious—they’re not the best for making applesauce.
Flavoring Homemade Applesauce
Once you have that true apple flavor, this Instant Pot applesauce is a blank template!
Add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, berries, or a mix of different fruits. You can also add more sugar or take some out depending on your tastes.
You can also add other types of fruits! Try our Instant Pot Pear Applesauce recipe or our Strawberry Applesauce in our Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook.
For serving, add crunch with chopped walnuts or a drizzle of cream.
Can I Double The Recipe?
As written, this recipe makes 4 cups of applesauce. You can double or 1.5x it if you like, though you may need a larger pressure cooker.
You will also need to use a longer natural pressure release since apples can foam while cooking.
❗️ Safety Note: If any liquid comes out of the steam release valve, immediately close the valve and let the pot sit for 30 seconds, then try again. Do this as often as needed until the pressure is released. This is called an intermittent pressure release, and it prevents overflows.
More Apple Recipes
’Tis the season for sweet and savory apple recipes. Here are some of my family’s favorite ways to cook with apples:
- Pressure Cooker Cranberry Applesauce is sweet, tart, and the perfect Thanksgiving condiment.
- Pressure Cooker Cinnamon Apple Steel Cut Oats is the ideal way to start a fall morning: a bowl of creamy and filling cinnamon-spiced oats.
- Perfect Apple Crisp from Barbara Bakes, because no list of apple recipes would be complete without this sweet, cinnamon- and oat-topped baked apple dessert.
- Apple-Zucchini Salad from Two Sleevers is a perfect savory recipe to bridge from late summer and early fall produce.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Instant Pot Applesauce
Instant Pot Applesauce is a healthy, sweet, delicious snack (or dessert) made with two kinds of apples and your favorite seasonings. Enjoy this seasonal treat warm or cold!
Ingredients
- 5 large sweet apples*, peeled, cored, and quartered or sliced
- 5 large tart apples*, peeled, cored, and quartered or sliced
- 1/4 cup apple juice or water
- 1/4 cup sugar, optional**
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place the apples, apple juice, sugar, and cinnamon in the pressure cooking pot, and stir to combine. Select High Pressure and a 4 minute cook time. (It will take around 10 minutes to come up to pressure.)
- After the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 5 minutes, then use a quick release to. Carefully remove the lid. (For less chunky applesauce, you can allow all of the pressure to release naturally).
- Stir the apples with a spoon or a potato masher, breaking up large chunks, until you've achieved your desired consistency. For a smoother consistency, you can also blend the apples with an immersion blender in the pot or use a food mill.
Notes
*Substitute any sweet, soft apples you like, such as Gala, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, or Fuji. Many apples are sweet enough without adding any extra sugar.
**More tart apples include Granny Smith, Pink Lady, or Rome.
If you use more apples, you'll need to use a longer natural pressure release. If any liquid comes out of the steam release valve, immediately close the valve and do an intermittent pressure release.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 176Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 4mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 7gSugar: 34gProtein: 1g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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To make this recipe into apple butter, should the cooking time be longer? I see that your Pumpkin Apple Butter cooks for 10 minutes.
Hi Karen – yes, if you want to make apple butter, I would increase the cook time so the apples break down more. After a natural pressure release, use the saute function, stirring frequently, to make it as thick as you’d like.
Wondering best way to store this sauce after it’s made and how long it’s expected to last in refrigerator? I do have mason jars. Do not plan on canning or freezing. Thanks
Hi Lynn – store it in tightly sealed jars and it will keep in the fridge for about a week.
I love making applesauce in my instant pot. I wash the apples (any kind) and core . cut in 1/8. add 1 1/2c water pressure cook for 45 min. quick release. take out of pot without liquid and put thru a food mill . throw away skins and check for sweetness.
applesauce can be canned or frozen.
I am using an electric pressure cooker. I want to stew apples in it, is this the same as making apple sauce?
Hi Michael – typically stewed apples are a little more firm than applesauce, where the apples are pureed and more liquid. For stewed apples, I would cut them into a little bit larger pieces and try a 1 minute cook time and see if they’re the consistency you’re looking for.
Thanks Barbara, I will try that. How much water would you suggest I use?
I would use the same amount of liquid and spices.
Thanks Barbara. Question: When releasing the pressure why does some of the stew come out throught the release valve?
If stew (or any liquid or foam) is coming out through the valve, then you need to immediately close the valve and use a different release method. Here’s more info https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/quick-pressure-release-or-natural-pressure-release/
Thanks Barbara, that answers all my questions.
I loved it! So easy to make! Thanks for the recipe!
This is so much better than any store bought kind! The whole family loves it when I make some.
I’m new to pressure cooking. I normally use a slow cooker to make applesauce. I use water and lemon juice. Is there any reason I wouldn’t want to use lemon juice in the pressure cooker. I find the lemon juice enhances the flavor of the applesauce.
Hi Melissa – yes, you can use lemon juice in the pressure cooker. Sounds like a great addition to me. Enjoy!
I am going to use this recipe for pear sauce. I made Pear Sauce once before on the stove and lost the recipe. It was so much better than applesauce. I can’t wait to try it.
Hi Rose – pear applesauce is great in the pressure cooker https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-pear-applesauce/
If I use a pressure cooker what is the psi and for how long ?
Hi Marsha – I assume you mean a stove top pressure cooker? Just bring it to pressure the way you normally would, reduce the heat to maintain pressure, cook for 4 minutes and let the pressure release naturally for at least 5 minutes. The psi isn’t all that important in this quick cooking recipe.
I would very much like to make my applesauce in a two step process —
first, put the whole unpeeled, uncured apples in the pressure cooker.
When finished and cooled, then put through my fruit mashing attachment to my kitchen aid- which automatically separates the skins, seeds, etc. and shoots the mashed sauce out the other way.
But…..I have always cooked my apples on the stove, which takes a very long time.
How exactly should I do the apples in my pressure cooker? Thanks so much!
Hi Marcia – it shouldn’t take long, I would try 6 – 8 minutes. You can always add more time if needed.
Can this recipe be canned in a water bath after processing?
Hi MaryBeth – I’m sorry I don’t have any experience with water bath canning.
You can process in Waterbath for 20 minutes for quarts and pints. I process my applebutter thus way and it’s great months later.
This is so good. My husband had a bad stomach bug last weekend, hadn’t eaten anything in a few days and nothing sounded good to him until I said “applesauce?” He said yeah ….. that does sound good. He ate a small bowl and it was just what he needed to get back on the road to recovery!
Definitely two thumbs up!
That’s great! So glad I could help in a small way. Glad he’s feeling better.
Absolutely perfect, used granny smith so sugar was needed. So smooth and yummy. Can’t wait to serve it with the ham on Sunday. Another big thumbs up from husband.
Thanks Diana – I’ll have to try it again with granny smith. I love that tartness.
I have the same slicer. Once sliced, do I need to break the spiral apart or toss it in connected (apple shaped? Thanks, Karen
Isn’t it fun. I usually cut the spiral apart.
Thanks! Since the slices are thinner than chunks, should I adjust the cooking time?
no, cook time should remain the same
I’ve made this a couple of times now, and use a mix of apples and pears. It’s yummy, freeze half and the rest goes in the fridge. Makes a nice dessert mixed with yogurt.
Thanks Astrid – I’ll have to try it with yogurt.
I see below that the time stays the same if you double the recipe. How about if I only do half a recipe?
Did you do this, Michelle? I’d like to know too.
Hi Alia – Your cook time should be the same for half a batch. If you like chunky applesauce, you could reduce the time by a minute.
Hi again Barbara, just wanted to let you know that I did do 1 1/2 recipes in the PC. I didn’t peel some of the apples, added brown sugar instead and used my emulsion blender to blend some. Then I canned 6 jars. Sooo good when it’s warm! Tks again!
Barbara, can this be doubled?
Yes, just don’t exceed your maximum fill and use a natural release instead of a quick pressure release.
Awesome…thanks! :0)
One more thing…time stays the same?
Yes, the time will be the same, but it will take longer to reach pressure.
got it…so glad you responded quickly! I’m going to make this tomorrow!!
This recipe is a so simple. I prepared this with my pre school class with the apples that each child bought to school for apple day. It was done in 10 minutes, cooled in the refrigerator for about an hour and all the children loved it. All 20 of them.! Plus the teachers : ) Thanks
Hi Patty – I love this idea so much. What a great way to teach the kids that packaged foods start with really ingredients. And since they each brought in an apple they all have ownership of what they made. You sound like an awesome teacher!
Instead of sugar, I use cinnamon red hots to flavor my applesauce. Do you think there would be a problem using them in the pressure cooker?
Hi Caryn – sounds like a fun way to flavor applesauce. I would increase the apple juice to 1/4 cup if you’re omitting the sugar.
I really love your site! I love my pressure cooker but still used it in very conventional ways. Your recepts are so inspiring. Thank you! I’m so glad to understand english. You can not find sites like yours in German. Cheesecake made in a pressure cooker! Tasty applesauce and so on. Yummy, thanks again, Maria
I just got a new electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot 6l LUX) and the instructions specifically say not to cook applesauce in it because it “can foam, froth, and sputter” and clog the steam vent. The warning also includes cranberries, oatmeal, barley, noodles, and macaroni among others. Do you think I really need to take this seriously, or is it more like a “lawyers warning” to protect the company? Do you have any suggestions such that I can make these things without worrying about clogging the vent?
I have a good friend that raves about her electric PC. She told me her favorite thing to make is mac & cheese, so I was very surprised to see that my cooker warns against macaroni…. then I saw your applesauce recipe, so now I’m wondering how much I really need to worry about the warning.
Thanks for the help and the great recipes on the site. I’m looking forward to trying many of them.
Terry
Hi Terri – You’re going to love your new Instant Pot. Yes, I do think it’s just a lawyers warning. In fact they give cook times for oatmeal, barley, and apples in their recipe booklet.
When cooking items that foam use a natural pressure release for at least a few minutes. That allows the foaming to stop and it won’t clog up your valve. I have found if you turn your pressure cooker off all the pressure will generally release within 10 minutes in an electric pressure cooker. For quick cooking items though, use a quick pressure release. Here’s a macaroni and cheese recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. If the Test Kitchen does it why not 🙂 https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/2013/03/macaroni-and-cheese-in-the-pressure-cooker-and-a-giveaway/
Have fun!
Thank you!
Coring apples wastes a significant amount of apple. Try this instead: cut them in half (along the equator), then cut along the fivefold lines of symmetry. The seeds will come out with far less waste. Also, unless you have very tart apples, sugar probably isn’t necessary. Certainly Jonagolds are sweet enough!
Hi John – I haven’t tried coring apples that way yet, but I did see a fun video about eating them that way.
Registered for and got a pressure cooker as a wedding present a year ago. I am so excited to find usable recipes to try in it!
Thanks Hilary! Glad I could inspire you.
Made this today and LOVE it! So simple yet so tasty! Can’t wait to make pork chops to go with it.
Instead of refined sugar, I used palm coconut sugar, which is a little richer (and has an extremely low glycemic index impact). I left the apple skins on and blended them into the sauce for nutrition.
Hi Stephanie – sound like great substitutions. So glad you enjoyed it.
with winter approaching I could make soups in a pressure cooker.
I just put a pressure cooker on my “want” list! 😉