How to Make Apple Butter
User Reviews
5
How to Make Apple Butter
Description
This recipe uses about six pounds of soft variety apples peeled and chopped, cooked in a slow cooker on high for eight hours covered. After that, the lid is removed for another two hours to allow excess liquid to evaporate, thickening the apple butter to a nearly applesauce-like consistency. Spices including cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg add warmth and complexity, while brown and white sugars provide balanced sweetness.
The resulting apple butter has a smooth texture with a deep color from the cooking process, ideal for spreading on bread, toast, or using in baking. A final touch of lemon juice can brighten the sweetness slightly.
Apple butter can be cooled and stored in sterile containers in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or frozen for up to a year. If the batch turns out too watery, transferring it to an oven-safe dish at 300°F and stirring periodically helps to reduce liquid further and thicken the spread.
Ingredients
- 6 lbs apple 12 large or 18 medium soft variety
- 2 cups brown sugar 400 g
- 1 cup white granulated sugar 200 g
- 2 cinnamon stick or 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp cloves ground
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg freshly grated
- lemon juice of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Peel your apples and chop them in relatively equal-sized pieces
- Set your slow cooker on high for eight hours, covered. Leave it alone. Your house will smell like apple pie all day.
- After the eight hours, mash the apples with a potato masher or fork until almost the texture of applesauce. The apples should be a beautiful deep reddish-brown color and the sugars dissolved. The slow cooker will be full of liquid, so for the next two hours leave it uncovered so the liquid can evaporate.
- Keep an eye on the apple butter during the two hours, but the apple butter should be thick at the end of the two hours Keep mashing the apples at your leisure until the individual apples no longer have a form and the apple butter is the texture of thick applesauce.
- Taste the mixture, add lemon juice a bit at a time to lighten the sweetness.
- Spoon the apple butter into sterile containers (for either canning or freezing). Store in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze for up to 12 months if not canning.
Notes
- Use soft apple varieties like Fuji, Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Cortland, or McIntosh for easier mashing.
- Cool apple butter completely before storing in freezer-safe containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace to allow for expansion.
- Apple butter can be frozen up to one year with maintained quality.
- If the apple butter has too much water after slow cooking, transfer to a shallow oven-safe dish and reduce at 300°F, stirring every 10 minutes, until the liquid evaporates.
Nutrition Information
Show DetailsNutrition Facts
Serving: 4cups
Amount Per Serving
Calories 4 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Serving | 1g | |
| Calories | 4kcal | 0% |
| Carbohydrates | 1g | 0% |
| Sodium | 3mg | 0% |
| Sugar | 1g | 2% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
5
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