Here is super easy recipe to make apple butter. This just is the epitomy of fall to me and it is so easy to pop in the slow cooker and viola! You have an amazing spread for waffles, bagels, muffins, pancakes or we like it on french bread.
If you haven’t had apple butter before it is sort of like a super concentrated applesauce. Very appley and cinnamon-y and best of all your house will smell fantastic.
I actually put this in a little Tupperware with slices of french bread for my girl’s lunches. They LOVE this stuff.
It also makes a lovely gift and it is so easy and inexpensive to make.
So this recipe I got from our pumpkin patch a few years ago. This recipe makes roughly an 8 oz jar of apple butter. Just double the recipe if you would like more. You might as well make more because it really is a lovely gift. Just a bit of twine around the jar and a little note tag and grab a fresh baguette and you are done.
- 6 apples of your choice- I used Gala but you can mix and match
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- squeeze of lemon juice
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- Core the apples and give them a rough chop.
- Place in slow cooker.
- Add cinnamon, water and both sugars.
- Gently stir.
- Close the lid and let this cook away for about 4½ hours on low.
- Check it periodicaly to make sure it is still moist and the apples are not dried out. Add more water as needed.
- Remove from Crock Pot after 4½ hours and place in a food processor or blender.
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice if you like.
- Puree until smooth.
- If the apple butter looks more like applesauce and doesn't have the rich brown color, just place back in the crock pot and cook for another hour or so on high heat. Leave the Crock uncovered and check it often.
In my experience, apple butter is not a precise science so this is one of those things you really just need to check on every so often. You want to make sure the apples are not watery but that they are not dried out either so just add a tiny bit of water if you think it needs it. Also you don’t want applesauce, you want this to cook down to a nice concentrated thick spread (like a good jam).
The color tends to turn from a lighter brown to a dark, rich brown once it is ready.
Also this recipe is a little heavy on cinnamon so just reduce the measurement a tiny bit if you want more of an apple flavor. This is also a little on the sweet side so reduce that white sugar according to your preference.
Oh and one last little note. Traditionally people will peel the apples to make apple butter. This is really up to you but I can’t bare to remove the peels because the peels are where most of the nutrients are located. I always buy organic apples so I never find the yucky waxy layers you sometimes see. Try to get the farm fresh apples that are so abundant if you possibly can. If you find the apples that do look pretty waxy you might want to go ahead and peel them.
I use this Crock Pot (and love it):
And here are a few other recipes you might enjoy:
Homemade Slow Cooker Applesauce (so yummy!!)
Caramel Apple Cider Recipe- so good!
For those of you asking about other fruits…yes, you should be able to use other fruits as it is the same concept although you may need to play with spices and sugar a little bit.
Sugar in the Raw? If you can get it to melt, yes you should be able to, but I haven’t tried it.
Thank you so much for this amazingly yummy recipe. I am just making this again, with the autumn apples. We use a mix of cookers and eaters, as we like tangy stuff, and our favourite use is a layer in the middle of flapjacks before baking. It makes the flavour intense and the mix lovely and sticky in the centre. I use Mary Berry’s fab ‘Fast Flapjacks’ recipe – the best taste I’ve found and really buttery.
Oh, and we froze it last year in small bags and it was fine. It doesn’t go hard, so we were worried it wouldn’t keep, but it did.
Oh yum! Those flapjacks sound delicious!
I made this several times last fall, and it was wonderful. I water-bath canned mine, and it has turned out nicely. I gave several jars away as gifts to my book club, and they raved about it. It doesn’t take much time to water bath can them, so I would recommend that so that you can enjoy it longer. Oh, and I doubled the recipe. I might consider using both my crock-pots this time and really getting enough. It is amazing.
I have made this apple butter two times now. I love it’s taste and the way it makes my house smell.
Yeah glad to hear it BK!
Ok I’m new to making stuff like this. I really want to make these as gifts but worried on storage. Wanting to make both your apple butter and the applesauce. I was told I should can them. I have no clue and well I do not no what exactly to use, equipment wise..or how…I have googled some but I still need help…please help a mama out..Thanks in advance
Hi Maggie,
The applesauce will be fine for about 2 weeks in the fridge. The apple butter will last for several weeks- like jam or jelly. How long are you needing to store? Canning is typically if you need something to last for several months and I actually am not much of a canner so I can’t give advice there.
HTH!
Charlene
I made this today with Granny Smith Apples,so I used just a bit more sugar & it is fabulous! One of my sons’ favorite Christmas treats is apple butter cookies, this is going to make them over the top delicious!
Oh so happy to hear that Jackie- you are so right a little extra sugar for Granny Smith for sure. 🙂