Making my Own Apple Butter
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 1:16PM Courtney 
The other day the weather was screaming, "It's Fall!" Our night-low got into the 40's and the day stayed in the 60's. It was, in my opinion, the perfect fall day. It also happened to be a Saturday, really God was blessing me! We headed to the market and each vendor seemed to have beautiful apples. We usually wait to get our apples at the orchard but these looked great. So, I snatched up a basketful. At first, I was just planning on eating them with our laughing cow cheese. But, we had so many I would not finish them all. I decided to take a stab at the apple butter recipe in the latest addition of Midwest Living. I never realized how easy it was to create a nice apple butter in your crock pot. We loved this and I will be making much more once we purchase more apples.
Crock Pot Apple Butter
Prep: 40 minutes. Cook: 6 hours (high). Cool: 1 hour
12 cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced (14 cups) 2 cups sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Directions: 1. Place apples in 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Stir in sugar and spices. 2. Cover and cook on high-heat setting for 4 hours. Stir. Uncover and cook on high-heat setting 2 to 2 1/2 hours more or until apples are very tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Cool mixture at least 1 hour or cover and chill overnight. Process with an immersion blender or run mixture through a food mill.* 3. Ladle apple butter into half-pint freezer containers, leaving a 1D2-inch head space. Seal and label. Store up to 3 weeks in refrigerator or up to 1 year in freezer. Makes 4 half-pints.
*Note: Mixture also may be processed, half at a time, in a blender or food processor. Mixture processed this way will be slightly lighter in color and thinner in consistency. (I actually just used a potato masher at the end of cooking and it mashed it into a great consistency)
Reader Comments (2)
Apple butter! I need to make myself a batch. This is good inspiration! :D
Thank you for this recipe! I read the magazine waiting in the doctor's office and wasn't able to copy it down, but I really wanted to try it. Now I can.