Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Wash the apples and ripe fresh apricots. Remove apple stems, seeds and tough cores. Cut each apricot along its natural seam, open it and remove its pit and any hard fragments. Leave skins on both fruits. Cut apples into bite-sized chunks and larger apricot halves to a similar size. Mix the prepared pieces, saving excess rather than overfilling one cooker.
- Fill the Ninja Foodi FD401 cooking pot about 3/4 full with mixed apple and apricot chunks, below MAX. Add 1/2 cup filtered water. Fit the pressure lid with valve in VENT. Select Slow Cook LO and the time; this is not pressure cooking.
- Cook covered on low for 6 to 10 hours, allowing about 8 hours for planning. Test an apple and an apricot piece with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. Both should collapse easily without firm centers. Apricots may soften before a firmer apple variety. Frozen chunks may take toward the longer end.
- Turn off cooking and Keep Warm. Divide the cooked fruit and liquid into shallow, heat-safe containers to cool promptly. An ice bath around the containers and occasional stirring can speed cooling. Cool to room temperature before using the Ninja BN801. If blending later, refrigerate within 2 hours and blend cold. Do not blend hot fruit.
- Set up the empty full-size BN801 pitcher with its stacked blade assembly before adding cooled fruit and cooking liquid in batches below MAX LIQUID. Secure the lid and close the pour-spout cap. Blend until skins become fine flecks and the sauce is evenly spoonable. Stop before checking or scraping, and follow manufacturer blade-handling instructions when transferring sauce.
- Stir the blended batches together. Expect approximately 2 quarts, with actual yield varying by the loaded fruit. Refrigerate promptly at 40°F or below and use within 3 to 4 days, or freeze portions with expansion room. Thaw in the refrigerator and stir. Serve cool or warm gently on the stove after blending.
Notes
Have 5 to 10 pounds apples and 2 to 5 pounds ripe apricots available for preparing the batch. Core the apples and remove the apricot pits, leaving peels attached, then mix the chunks and fill only about three-quarters of the cooker, below MAX. Save excess prepared fruit for another load. Use 1/2 cup filtered water per load. Both fruits belong in this apple-and-apricot version.
Choose sound, ripe fresh apricots with yellow to orange color and flesh that yields gently. Cut along the natural seam, open the fruit and remove every pit and hard fragment. This fresh-fruit weight is not replaced pound for pound with dried apricots. Test both fruits after cooking, including a firmer apple piece.
Full GAPS after apples, apricots and their skins have been introduced. Intro Stage 5 uses a different peeled-apple preparation with ghee or animal fat; this mixed skin-on sauce is separate. Serve fruit as a snack between meals. There are no dairy, egg or nut ingredients; this fruit recipe does not fit No-Plant GAPS and is not automatically ketogenic.
Twenty minutes preparation plus an eight-hour cooking estimate gives the displayed 8 hours 20 minutes. Actual cooking is 6 to 10 hours on LOW, with frozen fruit toward the longer end. Cooling and batch blending take additional time. Approximately 2 quarts is a guide, with final volume varying by the loaded fruit.
On the FD401, use Slow Cook LO with the pressure lid and valve in VENT, below MAX. Its LO timer permits 6 to 12 hours. Use wood or silicone in the cooking pot. Cool the fruit before blending in the BN801 full-size pitcher; its manufacturer prohibits hot liquids. Install the stacked blade before food, stay below MAX LIQUID, secure the lid and keep the spout cap closed while operating. Work in batches.
At 2× have 10 to 20 pounds apples, 4 to 10 pounds ripe apricots and 1 cup water across two cooker loads. Keep the same fill limit and use 1/2 cup water per load. Approximately 4 quarts combined; actual yield varies. One cooker needs successive runs and more elapsed time, not twice the fruit forced into one pot.
Washed, cored and pitted fruit chunks can be frozen up to about 4 months before cooking. Cook from frozen with the same water per load and fill limit. Refrigerate finished sauce promptly in shallow containers, within 2 hours at 40°F or below, and use within 3 to 4 days or freeze portions with expansion room. Thaw in the refrigerator. Keep raw-fruit and finished-sauce labels separate.