Apple Butter is absolutely delicious and it's just so easy to make from scratch by using your slow cooker. Feel free to customize the sugar content to your own taste -- this is a base recipe for you to experiment with!
Day 275.
Finally! I made apple butter! You can stop emailing me now!
ha ha ha. :-) thank you.
Thank you for pushing me to make this. This beats the lid off of store-bought apple butter.
The Ingredients.
makes approximately 10 cups
10-15 Apples. (14 large apples fit in my 6 quart crockpot)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon vanilla
NOTE: I have made this with less sugar and it's still very tasty. It's your call on the sugar, and it also depends on the variety of apples you use. If you've got super tart apples you will want more sugar, and so forth. The key is to make sure that it's an EVEN amount of both brown and white.
The Directions.
This is a 2-day process. Quarter the apples and take out the core.
I did not peel, and picked out the skin later. If you enjoy peeling, or have one of those cool apple tools that peels easily, you should peel.
Although my picking out the skin later idea worked, it was kind of a pain.
Put all of the quartered apples into your crockpot.
Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
When the cooking is done, mash the apples with a fork. Pick out the skin with the fork. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.
Cover again and cook on low for 6 hours. Pick out more apple skin. If you prefer your apple butter to be velvety-smooth, blend with an immersion blender, or blend in small batches in a traditional blender. I did not do this.
The Verdict.
Very very good. Very sweet, but the sweetness did mellow after a night in the refrigerator. This made enough for 3 jars of apple butter.
We gave a container to my mom and grandma. It tastes wonderful with peanut butter on an apple rice cake.
mmm.