Apple Butter

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Apple season is approaching, but sometimes there are just too many apples to use up! This apple butter recipe is a great way to not only use up leftover apples but also make them into something entirely new and incredibly delicious!

For more great apple recipes, why not make some Baked Apples? Or just use this recipe to make some Apple Butter Pork Loin instead?  

Table of Contents

1. Apple Butter
2. Apple Butter Ingredients
3. How To Make Apple Butter
4. How To Easily Prep Your Apples For This Recipe
5. Peeling Your Apples
6. What Kind Of Apples Should You Use For This Recipe
7. Sweeter Apples Are Better
8. PIN THIS RECIPE to yourJAMS & SAUCES Boards and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST
9. Apple Butter Recipe

Apple Butter

Apple butter is one of those recipes that came about as a direct result of needing to use up leftover bits of apple or too many apples from a big bumper harvest.

Mixed with plenty of autumnal spices and blended into a smooth paste, apple butter can be used as an ingredient in plenty of dessert recipes or spread onto some toast and eaten like marmalade.             

Apple Butter Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)

• Granulated sugar

• Brown sugar

• Nutmeg

• Ground cinnamon

• Ground ginger

• Ground cloves

• Salt

• Vanilla extract

How To Make Apple Butter

• Place the apples in a large slow cooker and turn on to low

• In a medium sized bowl, add the sugars, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt

• Sprinkle this mixture over the apples and stir it well to coat

• Cook on low in the slow cooker for 9-10 hours, stirring occasionally

• The mixture will thicken a little and turn darker brown

• Stir in the vanilla and continue to cook on low uncovered for another two hours

• Turn off the slow cooker and let it cool for 1/2 hour

• Use an immersion blender to puree it, or you can also use a regular blender to get a smoother apple butter

• Spoon the apple butter into sterile jars and refrigerate for up to 14 days or freeze it

How To Easily Prep Your Apples For This Recipe

Apples are not only the perfect snacking fruit, but they also have plenty of uses in recipes and spreads – they are multi-purpose and highly versatile and only require a little bit of prep to get them ready for your favorite recipe.

However, this preparation can prove pretty tricky for some people because it seems like there are just too many steps between you and a perfectly prepared apple.

To start, you need to peel your apple. This is best done with a dedicated peeler, which is basically just a sharp, inset blade along a long ridge, sort of like a concave razor blaze, that allows you to run the blade all along the skin of the apple, taking the skin off as you go.

Peeling Your Apples

If you don’t have a peeler, you can remove the skin using a very sharp knife, but just keep in mind that it is super easy to cut yourself if you aren’t being totally careful.

After peeling, you need to core your apples. This means removing the tough, fibrous section of the apple in the very middle that contains not only the seeds but also a lot of the fiber in the apple.

Again, using a dedicated corer is probably best for this, as it allows you to remove the core in one swift motion.

If you don’t have it, you can simply combine coring with the next step in apple preparation; slicing.

Cut the apple into usable pieces, away from any remaining core, so that it totally leaves behind the core and ensures that you only have juicy, usable slices of apple and no seeds or tough bits of apple leftover.

What Kind Of Apples Should You Use For This Recipe

Probably one of the trickiest things about trying to use apples is that there seems to be an almost endless supply of different apple varieties out there.

From sweet and small to large and sour, apples are one of the most commonly diverse types of fruit out there, with more options than you could possibly imagine.

For making this recipe, you might assume that baking apples, like Granny Smith, would be the right option to make apple butter.

Sweeter Apples Are Better

However, to make really good apple butter, you actually want a slightly sweeter, smaller apple, like a Fuji or a Braeburn.

This is because the smaller, sweeter apples cook down a lot faster, resulting in the apple butter getting cooked in enough time so that the sugar and other seasonings don’t start to burn in the pan.

Plus, the cooking time of apple butter really doesn’t allow enough time for the sweetness of cooking apples to come through and beat their acidity.

So make sure to use only the sweetest, smallest apples for this recipe.

Also, there is the issue of where to get the apples to consider.

This recipe was traditionally made to help use up leftover apples after a particularly large bumper crop of apples, especially the sweeter, slightly sickly ones that were starting to rot on the ground.

If you happen to live near an orchard, asking around there to try and get some excess apples could be a really great way to get enough apples for this recipe.

Looking for more delicious Dessert recipes? Try these out:

• Easy Cherry Crisp

• Easy Salted Caramel Sauce

• Banana Split Cake

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

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