Slow Cooker Apple Pear Sauce

This slow cooker apple pear sauce is an easy and delicious fall side dish that combines pears and apples. It’s sweet and wholesome and your whole family will love it! This homemade pear applesauce can be a dessert, side dish or healthy after school treat!

You might also like this low carb slow cooker pumpkin cake recipe!

I originally made this delicious slow cooker apple pear sauce years ago for my son who just loves apples. I thought it would be a healthy after school snack for him or I could serve it as a side dish.

My family loves apples with pork so this recipe came in handy and I also like to eat the apple pear sauce as a healthy dessert. It’s so easy to make in the slow cooker as it’s basically a dump and go kind of recipe. I love making this in the fall because it infuses the house with the scent of fresh apples and pears.

Plus there are so many varieties of both fresh pears an dapples this time of year. Today I ended up with Barlet pears (my husband’s favorite) and SnapDragon apples (my favorite). You can play around with different varieties or just use what you have on hand. It’s a delicious combination to make a sauce with.

Recipe ingredients I used and substitutions.

This truly a simple recipe with a handful of ingredients. I used apples, pears, butter, cinnamon, water and coconut sugar.

Apples & Pears
You can use whatever varieties of these fruits as you want. Or just what you have on hand. I love SnapDragon apples that Aldi carries these days and Barlet pears.

If you want to keep it lower carb you could use less ripe fruit and a less sweet apple like Granny Smith. They are tart and would be a great substitute if you like tartness. I was going for sweet as I have a bit of a sweet tooth.

Coconut Sugar
I used coconut palm sugar because I had it on hand. It has a bit of a brown sugar flavor but if you want to lower the sugar content in this recipe you could Swerve brown sugar sweetener or Lakanto Golden sweetener. You could also eliminate the refined sugar altogether as the fruits have enough sweetness on their own.

And if you don’t have any of those products you can use brown sugar or white sugar.

Cinnamon
Sometimes I add cinnamon to this recipe because my husband likes it but it’s not necessary. Some other warm spices that would go nice with this recipe are allspice, cloves, cardamon, ground coriander or even a pumpkin pie spice. If using any of these spices just use ½ – 1 teaspoon in total for the 8 pieces of fruit.

How to make slow cooker apple pear sauce.

Step 1: Get out your crock pot and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 2: Peel and core the apples and pears. Chop up into smaller pieces and add to the slow cooker.

Step 3: Sprinkle the coconut sugar and cinnamon over the apple and mix to combine. Chop up the butter into small pieces and scatter over the top.

Step 4: Place the lid on the crock pot and cook on low for 3-4 hours until fruit is soft and mushy. Mix halfway to make sure the butter and sugar are well distributed.

Step 5: Spoon the fruit mixture into a high speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You can also use immersion blender. If you prefer chunky applesauce, leave some chunks in it.

You can eat this hot or cold. I like to serve it warm right when it’s done myself but many people like it cold. Or use it in oatmeal or over vanilla ice cream for dessert and add some toasted nuts. Some people substitute apple sauce for the oil in cake mixes or use them in quick bread recipes.

Store leftovers in an airtight container. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

The nice thing about this homemade applesauce recipe is that it’s easy and a child can help you if you want. This is also a nice recipe for older folks who have trouble eating.

Apple sauce is smooth, sweet and easy to swallow. We made this with my mother in law who had Alzheimer’s. Food was not appealing to her and the texture of most food was a problem too. But this is one thing she liked.

More healthy and delicious apple and pear recipes to try.

If you want to take advantage of the seasonal pears and apples available in the fall and winter, here are few more recipes to try.

• oven baked apple and pears
• air fryer baked whole apples
• keto maple fruit dip or cinnamon toast cashew cream
• creamy pork tenderloin with apples
• apple chips in the air fryer or pear chips in the oven
• apple cheese flatbread or cinnamon apple breakfast bread

I loved eating this slow cooker apple pear sauce warm but my son prefers it cold. My whole family likes this but I tend to only make it in colder weather. Unfortunately you only get about 6 helpings from this batch and it goes fast.

But the good news is that this delicious sauce is so easy to make you can have it whenever you want. Enjoy!