Homemade Applesauce Recipe- How to Make it Frugally and Healthy

Someone asked on a cooking group I'm in for a recipe to make applesauce. I never thought applesauce really needed a recipe, but assumed I had one on my site anyhow. I didn't.
There really are two ways to make applesauce- one is raw and one is cooked, but since most people associate applesauce with the cooked variety, that's what I'm posting. The raw stuff is just apples processed in the food processor until you have a sauce, perhaps with a dash of cinnamon. That's even less of a recipe than this...

There are two basic types of applesauce- sweetened, and unsweetened. Sweetened is made just like the unsweetened, with the addition of sweetener added at the very end. This recipe is acidic enough to be able to be canned via water bath canning, which is a good idea if you like to serve applesauce for your family when they have stomach bugs, and you want to avoid paying a lot for store bought applesauce, like I did last month.
To keep down the cost of my homemade applesauce, I buy apples from the reduced rack at a fraction of the price of regular apples. I don't toss the cores- I freeze them for use in another recipe which I'll share at another point.
Because applesauce will be cooked and blended, I don't remove any bruised areas from the apple- I just cut out spoiled or rotten parts (it happens when apples are on the reduced rack) but bruises and apple skin are fair game. (You can remove skin if you want to, but I don't since I don't need a fully smooth applesauce- I don't mind tiny pieces of skin in mine.)

My Instructions for Applesauce Making

I take a bunch of apples- ideally not Granny Smith apples, or if it includes Granny Smith apples, I try to have a mix and include many other sweeter varieties of apples- and remove their cores, and cut them into small-ish pieces. (Not diced- just large, thick slices.) I then fill a pot with them, and then add a cup or two of water into the pot.
Cover the pot, and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, cover the pot, put the flame on low, and simmer until the apples are fully soft and cooked.

 
At this point, uncover the pot, and raise the flame. The goal now is to boil out the water that you no longer need/want in the pot. Mix occasionally to make sure nothing gets stuck on the bottom, and keep an eye on it so you know when the water is all boiled out.

With a blender stick, I blend all the apples until I have a uniform consistency, taking extra care not to leave any apple skin whole. If you don't have a blender stick, you can use a blender or food processor instead.

At this point, you can add a dash of cinnamon if desired, and you can also add some sweetener if you want. I prefer mine with cinnamon and unsweetened, but if you add a liquid sweetener like honey, you may want to cook it a little more on the stove top, stirring frequently to make sure it doesn't burn, to help remove the excess moisture.

Refrigerate the applesauce and serve cold, serve hot, or can at this point.

Bon appetite!

Variations:
You can make this exact same thing with pears to get a delicious pear sauce.
You can take this applesauce and turn it into fruit leather.

Are you a fan of applesauce? How much do apples cost where you live, at the very cheapest? How much do they currently cost? Have you seen apples on the reduced rack? How much cheaper are they there? How much does applesauce cost locally? Is making homemade applesauce cheaper for you or buying ready made applesauce? Have you made applesauce before? How do you make yours? Like mine, or some other way?