Apple Butter, Crock Pot

By Becky Jo

Serve over hot biscuits, toast, scones, or just eat it out of the jar if no one is looking!

Ingredients

• 2- 3 * 2- 3 lb (50 oz) jars unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 * 3 lbs granny smith apples
• 4 * 4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 * 1 1/2 cups apple juice
• 2 * 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 * 1 tsp cloves
• 1 * 1 tsp allspice

Details

Adapted from southernplate.com

Preparation

Step 1

I like to put my apple butter on to cook in the slow cooker just before I go to bed and let it cook all night long. When I wake up in the morning, the house is filled with the most delicious and fragrant smell that I often reserve making it for a time when we have company! I wake up first thing, take the lid off, and give it a few fans just to make sure the house is thoroughly saturated with apple butter smell (you might want to save this until after you’ve made biscuits because that breakfast table will fill up pretty quickly!). We eat a breakfast of biscuits and fresh, hot apple butter while I let the rest continue to cook. This is about as close to heaven as you can possibly get while still drawing breath.


Our ingredients are: Two large jars of unsweetened applesauce (three pounds or fifty ounces), sugar, 3 lbs granny smith apples, apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Exact recipe is at bottom of page.

“Chip” your apples like we did in the apple pie (If you have not read the apple pie tutorial, you now have your first official homework assignment). Do this by peeling them and cutting little chips of them off. Place in large crock pot along with both jars of apple sauce, sugar, spices, and a bit of apple juice (exact quantities at the bottom). If you feel like it is too much sugar for you or too much cloves or allspice, just do a little less. The beauty of this recipe is that you cook it all night in the crock pot, then taste it in the morning and add what you prefer to make it to your taste. You can also use Splenda instead of sugar!

My advice in doing that would be to put a wee bit less Splenda than the amount of sugar it calls for.


Stir well and cover with lid. Cook on low overnight, eight to ten hours.

At this point your butter will be dark brown and rich, but with a bit too much water in it. This is where you will taste it and see what you want to add. I am including the exact quantities I use at the bottom of this recipe. Leave the lid off and continue cooking for a few hours until it cooks down a little bit. “Cooks down” is how old folks say “its too runny, you need some of that water gone!”.

After it cooks down a bit, fill up pint or quart jars and seal. If you go through the process of canning this, you can simply leave the jars on a shelf in your pantry. Otherwise you would need to refrigerate them and use within two to three weeks. You can also place in jars and freeze to keep it longer without having to can it. Personally, I ended up with eight pints of it. Last time I made it, my company ate almost two pints at dinner. I sent a few pints home with them, gave one to another neighbor, one to another…..and so on and so forth. Long story short is, out of eight pints, I have one left for my own personal use. ~grins~ Now that’s when you know you’ve done good!


Peel and cut apples into small chips. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Cover and cook on low overnight (eight to ten hours). Remove cover, stir and taste. Add more spices or sugar if desired. Continue cooking for a few more hours, uncovered, until some of the liquid has gone and butter has cooked down a bit. Pour into jars and refrigerate (unless it is canned properly).

Serve over hot biscuits, toast, scones, or just eat it out of the jar if no one is looking!