Apple Butter

By stancec44

The secret to great apple butter is to use mix of fresh and dried apples slow cooked in cider and, if you’re feeling frisky, a little applejack.

Dried apples have a concentrated flavor that, ounce for ounce, fresh apples (loaded with water) just can’t provide. Anyone with a trace of Appalachian heritage knows you can make a phenomenally intense apple butter from 100% dried apples. But unless you can dry the apples yourself, the ones you purchase will only come in one variety and thus only one flavor. By using a few different varieties of the fresh fruit, you’ll have an array of apple flavors coming together in one unforgettable butter.

If you’ve never had or heard of this Appalachian classic, you can read more about it on Gilt Taste. It has a wonderful gingery apple flavor and doesn’t require any expertise to make. For all its towering layers, it embodies the word rustic. So don’t worry if it leans, if patches of cake show through the apple butter, or if crumbs wind up where you normally wouldn’t want ‘em. It doesn’t have defects, it has character.

Ingredients

• If you’d like to skip the fresh apples, omit them and use 2 pounds of dried apples instead.
• 3 pounds fresh apples, peels on, cored and chopped
• 1/2 pound dried apple rings, chopped
• 1 gallon apple cider
• optional: 4 ounces applejack
• 2 vanilla bean, split and scraped, seeds reserved
• 16 ounces sugar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• optional: 1, 3” cinnamon stick

Preparation

Step 1

In a large stock pot, combine the apples, dried apples, cider, applejack if using, and vanilla bean pods. The dried apples will absorb the cider and plump considerably, so please use a pot with plenty of room to spare.

Set the pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced by half or more and the apples seem to be swimming in a very thick stew. This could take between two and four hours, depending on the width of your pot, specific heat, and commitment to babysitting the mixture.

When the mixture has become thick, add the reserved vanilla seeds, sugar, salt and cinnamon stick, if using. The sugar will dissolve and return the mixture to a more liquidy state. Continue simmering for about another hour, or until the apples and liquid have become very dark in color and as thick as before you added the sugar.

Now remove the vanilla bean pods (don’t forget to scrape out the apple-y vanilla goo from inside the pod) and cinnamon stick. Puree the apples with an immersion blender, or in a food processor.

Immediately spread over a thick slice of butter-buttered bread, grab a mug of tea, and bliss out.

Transfer the apple butter to jars. Store, refrigerated, indefinitely.