Slow Cooker Elderberry Applesauce For Full GAPS

Elderberry applesauce is a slow-cooked apple sauce with a small amount of dried black elderberries blended into the fruit. The apples provide most of the flavor and body. The berries add a mild berry taste, and their tiny seeds remain in the finished sauce. This version keeps the apple skins, so it belongs later on Full GAPS when those foods and textures suit you.

The preparation is simple: core and slice the apples, add water and dried elderberries, then cook on Low overnight. Blend after the apples have softened completely. Honey is optional and goes in only if the finished fruit needs more sweetness.

Jump to the Recipe

In our family, one child reacted to raw apples and fresh apple juice but tolerated homemade applesauce. That experience made me pay attention to the way a fruit is prepared, rather than assuming every apple recipe would be the same. This recipe includes elderberries and keeps the skins. It is a different preparation from the plain applesauce we used during Intro.

If you are already comfortable with cooked apples, skins, and berries, this gives you another way to serve them. Set the ingredients out before you start coring. Once the cooker is filled, the fruit cooks slowly without a saucepan needing your attention all evening.

Apples, Elderberries, and a Little Water

Apples: Use eight to twelve ripe apples. Wash them, remove the stems and cores, and slice them with their skins on. The amount is a range, rather than a fixed weight or a promise that every batch will fill the same number of jars. The size of your apples affects how much prepared fruit goes into the pot.

A knife and cutting board work well. An apple corer is useful if you have one: remove the core, check that no hard pieces or seeds remain, then slice the fruit. You do not need to peel the apples for this version. Cut manageable pieces that can settle into the cooker instead of trying to fit whole apples around the lid.

Dried elderberries: Measure one tablespoon of plain dried black elderberries sold for food use. Choose berries without added sugar, starch, sulphites, or flavorings. Keep stems and other plant material out of the pot. These are dried berries added directly to the apples, rather than strained berry pulp left from making syrup.

Water: Add half a cup. The apples release liquid as they soften, and this starts the batch with a little moisture in the cooker.

Honey: This is optional, to taste. Let the apples cook before deciding whether to add any. A sweet apple batch may need none. Add a little at a time after blending so you can taste the apples and berries together before sweetening them.

How to Make Elderberry Applesauce

Core and Slice the Apples

Wash the apples and work through them on a cutting board. Remove the cores, seeds, and stems, leaving the skins on the slices. Put the prepared pieces into the slow cooker as you go. Measure the water and dried berries before adding them, so you are starting with the intended small berry addition.

Before cooking, you should still see separate apple pieces and small dark dried berries. The mixture is not a puree yet. It also is not meant to look like apples floating in a pot of juice. Most of the liquid in the finished sauce will come from the fruit as it softens.

Cook on Low Overnight

Add the half cup of water and tablespoon of dried elderberries to the apples. Cover and use the cooker’s Low slow-cook setting overnight. For my Ninja Foodi FD401, that means the Slow Cook function, not Pressure or Air Crisp. Follow the appliance’s slow-cook lid and vent instructions.

Apple size and your cooker affect how long the fruit takes to soften. Check the apples before blending. The apple flesh should be soft enough to crush easily with a spoon, and there should be no firm, crisp centers left in the pieces.

The slices will lose their fresh, rigid shape as they cook. The skins can still be visible around the softened flesh, and the berries will be mixed through the fruit. Press an apple piece with the spoon to check its center, especially if some slices were thicker than others.

Blend the Fruit and Skins Together

This applesauce keeps the cooked skins and berries in the sauce. Blend the contents together rather than draining off the cooking liquid or straining the fruit through a sieve. That gives you a spoonable apple sauce with a light berry flavor, instead of the clear, strained liquid of honey elderberry syrup.

My blender is the Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System BN801. Its sealed pitcher is not for hot liquids, so let the cooked mixture cool completely before transferring it. Work in batches within the marked capacity. Do not put a steaming pot of fruit straight into that pitcher.

Blend until the skins are incorporated and the apple pieces have broken down. The elderberry seeds can remain faintly noticeable. Keeping those small seeds is part of this version; blending does not turn it into a strained, seed-free sauce.

Taste Before Adding Honey

Taste the blended applesauce before sweetening. If you want honey, add a little, mix it through, and taste again. The apples should still provide the main flavor, with the elderberries adding a mild berry note. You do not need to add cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, or rose hips to make this recipe.

Spoon the finished sauce into a bowl or clean covered storage containers. The exact amount varies with the apples you used. Measure the finished batch if you need equal portions rather than assuming the same fruit count always makes the same volume.

Where This Version Fits on GAPS

Dr. Natasha’s Gut and Physiology Syndrome includes ripe apples and edible berries such as elderberries within the GAPS food guidance. Plain dried fruit must have nothing added. Natural honey is the optional sweetener here.

This is a Full GAPS preparation after cooked fruit, apple skins, and the included berries have been introduced and tolerated. The retained skins and berry seeds distinguish it from peeled, deseeded apple puree used earlier in Intro. Cooking the fruit overnight does not remove those skins and seeds.

The recipe contains no dairy, eggs, nuts, or flour. It is still a fruit preparation, so it does not fit No-Plant GAPS. If you currently need peeled and deseeded fruit, use a recipe written for that preparation instead of treating this whole-fruit version as interchangeable.

Serving and Keeping the Applesauce

Serve the applesauce on its own in a small bowl, or spoon some into homemade cashew yogurt for a dairy-free apple-and-berry pairing. Mix a little in first and taste before adding more. The applesauce is already flavored, so you can judge whether the bowl needs any honey after combining them.

With the Ninja pitcher route described here, cool the fruit fully before blending and serve the blended sauce cool. If you use another blender, follow its instructions for the temperature of the food. A blender suitable for warm food can also finish the sauce for a warm serving.

Keep leftovers covered in the refrigerator, label the preparation date, and use a clean spoon to take out portions. Store the blended sauce as prepared fruit, rather than leaving the finished batch on the counter. This is a refrigerated recipe, with no canning or shelf-storage method included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Need to Peel the Apples?

No. This particular version keeps the skins and blends them into the softened fruit. Core the apples thoroughly and remove their seeds before cooking. If skins do not suit your current GAPS food progression, choose a peeled applesauce preparation.

Will the Elderberries Make It Taste Like Syrup?

The tablespoon of dried berries adds a mild berry flavor to a much larger amount of apples. This is not the spiced honey syrup recipe. It has no required cinnamon, cloves, ginger, vanilla, or measured honey base.

Can I Use the Berries Left From Making Syrup?

Use one tablespoon of plain dried elderberries for this batch. Strained berries from a syrup batch have already cooked in water and may contain other spices. Keep those solids out of this applesauce.

Can I Blend It While Hot?

For the Ninja BN801, let the mixture cool completely first and blend in batches as needed. Keep each batch below the marked capacity so the lid closes properly and the fruit has room to blend.

Equipment for Slow-Cooked Applesauce

Use a slow cooker with enough room for the prepared apples and its lid to close properly. My owned cooker is the Ninja Foodi FD401, using Slow Cook on Low. A knife or apple corer, cutting board, measuring cup, tablespoon, stirring spoon, blender, and covered storage containers handle the rest.

For more fruit-based snack ideas, my upcoming Gummies & Fruit Snacks Cookbook includes fresh-juice-and-honey gummies and dehydrator fruit leather. You can see the collection in the WFLI cookbook catalog. Portion this applesauce after blending so the next bowl is ready to take from the refrigerator.