how to cook apples for baby

Baby's First AppleSauce

Simple and healthy homemade apple sauce is an excellent food for babies. It is rich in fibers and vitamin C and has a mild sweet flavor. Natural sugars of apple will keep your baby's stomach healthy. As one of the first fruits for your child, you can prepare a nice apple sauce right at your home that is healthy and yummy.
Check out the following steps for preparing apple sauce or you can simply call it baked/cooked apple puree.

Step 1 – Buy fresh Apples from the Market

As apples are very sweet and quite easy to consume, they can be easily mixed with a number of different baby cereals. During the fall season, you will get plenty of fresh apples that are juicy, flavorful and delightfully crisp.

apples basket

What apples are best for baby food? Always make sure to get firm apples that are free from any blemishes or bruises. Buy your apples from shops that offer only organic fruits as this will help you to avoid fruits having harmful pesticide residues. As you are looking to make applesauce out of them for your baby, get apples with sweet, mild flavor like California apples, Gala apples and Red Delicious apples.

Step 2 – Wash the Apples properly and peel them

Wash all the apples in a mixture of water and white vinegar combined in a ratio of 3:1. This will help to get rid of all the bacteria from them. Dry and peel the apples after you have rinsed them with cool running water. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the apples by working on them in a circular pattern.

peel the apples

Do you need to peel the apples for babies ? Why?
Yes, Its better you peel the apples when cooking for baby food.
There are 2 reasons to peel apples
1. Babies under 8 months may not be able to digest the skin of apple. Also it will not make a good texture of puree.
2. These days seller wax the apples to make them shine, which is very harmful for tender stomach of baby and also this wax is not easy to remove so better and safer way of using apples for babies is to peel them.

Step 3 – Remove the core and then chop the Apples into Pieces

Put the peeled apples with their stem sides up on a nice clean cutting board and then slice them into halves. Hold the apple slices in the cup of your palm and then use a paring knife to scoop off the core in a shallow motion. After you have removed the cores, cut each of the apple halves into small chunks.

cut apples

Step 4 – Prepare and cook the apple pieces

1) How much water to use while cooking apples? : When you measure water, remember we dont want excess water which we might have to waste after cooking so use only enough. For one apple one cup of water is enough if you are pressure cooking it. If you want to cook apples in sauce pan then use 1.5 cups of water per apple. Put measured water in a medium sized saucepan.
2) Bring water to boil, gently reduce the heat until the bubbles turn soft. Next add the apple pieces to boiling water and then cook them until they turn tender.
3) Keep on checking the apples after every five minutes.

cook apples

4)How long to boil apples for baby food? If you you are using pressure cooker then one whistle on high flame and 2 whistles on low flame are enough for cooking apples. If you are cooking it in sauce pan then cook it for 15-20 mins with lid on (lid with a hole.) It is necessary to reduce the cooking time in order to preserve the minerals and vitamins. Once the apple pieces become tender stop the cooking process.

5) Let it cool.

Step 5 – Puree the Apple Pieces

Add cooked apple pieces to a food processor to puree the apples until they turn smooth. Reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the apples to maintain the desired consistency. The left over water contains nutrients so too rich to throw away hence measuring water before boiling is necessary.

blend apple

You may not be able to get perfect applesauce in first trial. If you want to make chunkier applesauce for babies older than 10 months, simply mash the cooked apples using a potato masher. You can also add a pinch of cinnamon for a richer flavor (not for young babies).
Should I add sugar to Apples Sauce?
Do not add sugar if your baby is below 1 year. Even for older babies, try to avoid adding sugar. The natural sugars of fruits are best for your little one.

sugar

The added sugar will not add any nutrition. You may want to add little sugar if applesauce has become sour. Let your baby decide this. You may be surprised to see baby loving the natural taste of it.

Step 6 Serve Applesauce

Your applesauce is ready for being served to your baby. As applesauce is quite versatile, you can either serve it plainly or even combine it with some other kind of puree depending on what your baby prefers.

feed baby

How to store the Applesauce for Baby

Refrigerate the remaining applesauce for being used later. Do not use the refrigerated sauce after 24 hours. This time of refrigeration depends on climate of place but in tropical countries like India try to avoid using refrigerated foods after 24 hours. If you live in colder region of world, you can refrigerate sauce for 3 days. Use your judgement. For longer life of baked fruit food for baby, you may freeze the applesauce in ice-cube-trays, store them in BPA-free containers/zip lock plastic bags. Use them for 1-3 months again depending on climate of your place.

Benefits of Applesauce for Babies with Diarrhea

Sorbitol – the natural sugar and pectin in apples help in the formation of stools. The homemade fresh applesauce is good for babies with diarrhea. You will be surprised to know the apple-juice is helpful in curing the constipation in babies. Fresh Applejuice contains more fibers, liquid and more sugars which helps thinning the stool.
The same apple given in different forms can help your baby's upset stomach to get normal.

When can I introduce apple to my baby?

Apples are one of best first-baby foods. So you can introduce them as first solids to your baby. The applesauce is tasty, easy to digest and full of nutrition hence perfect for babies from 6 months old.
Applesauce is one of easiest Fruit Baby Food Recipes and babies love it.
applesauce infographics

About Author

An IT professional, a mom of two, Sapana had belly-only pregnancies in her life & has lost 15Kg weight twice. Along with fitness, Sapana is an expert in Indian names & has helped scores of Indian parents to shortlist suitable baby names by virtue of her years of expertise in Sanskrit origin names & logical approach towards cultures & trends during the name research. Drop a comment to get help from her.