Apple butter seems appropriate now that we are getting into fall and making apple butter is a time-honored tradition in many households! For me, it means that my house will smell like apples and cinnamon for three days and that all the scone flavors I can think of will just be heightened by the apple butter I plan to smear across them. It is a simple, warm and delicious way to usher in fall.
This recipe is inspired and adapted from Marisa’s recipe over at Food in Jars and I am happy to say that it is such an easy recipe to accomplish. Even for those on the go! Making it in a crockpot means that you can go to work, go to sleep, fold laundry, take your puppy on a walk, read a book… or just about anything else you need or want to do! The crockpot does all of the work! In fact, since this year’s batch came out so good, I might use my husbands 22 quart crockpot next year to make a whole lotta apple butter! That would be crazy!! But oh so delicious!
Luckily for me, I chose to peel, slice and core my apples during a nap, and Mei made sure to take an extra long nap this day so I was able to quickly do my work on 60 or so apples while she got some much-needed rest. It takes a lot of energy to be an active, bouncing baby – so it makes sense that she was so worn out!
Back at the store, the British checkers thought I was positively NUTS for buying as many apples as we did. We easily spent ten dollars in apples, choosing a mix of Gala and Pink Lady for the butter and buying up a few of the Granny Smith’s for the other apple recipes we are going to be making each day this week. This apple shopping did make me miss Washington, the only state in the US where I have spent a majority of my life and the land of apples! Once you have lived in the Pacific Northwest, you realize how spoiled we are when it comes to apples, fresh seafood and coffee.
Oh.
My.
God.
I miss the coffee! Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks…. !!! In 7th grade, while my family and I were living in Virginia, we had to follow a new, baby stock and watch it grow and drop and whatnot for math class and I had chosen Starbucks simply for its name and watched day after day as the stock rose higher and higher. Too bad at the age of 13, my parents wouldn’t let me hire a stock broker and buy Starbucks stock! ….
At any rate, I digress. Back to apples! I would have loved to make an apple butter using Red Delicious apples, but since a pack of four costs my about 2.50 British Pounds Sterling, which is about $6, I had to go with the much cheaper, but less delicious apples. I do wish I had the access to Honeycrisp and Fuji apples too – those would have made fabulous apple butters! Choose whichever apples suit your fancy, you can go more tart if you would like an apple butter that is less sweet and more tart, or go as sweet as the Honeycrisp and load up on extra spices!
Over the past few days, I have not needed to light any fall inspired Bath and Bodyworks candles, as I like to do from season to season since the rich, spice laden smell of the apple butter cooking down filled my house with a fresh, warm scent! Making apple butter will simply make you hungry for apples! Or just hungry! But waking up to this smell every morning is well worth the effort of (or pain for some people) peeling, coring and slicing sixty apples!
Maybe I have finally earned the opportunity to buy a fancy apple peeler and corer?… Only next year will tell. But for those that aren’t interested in spending that money, slicing the tops and ends off of each apple, so that it will sit level on your cutting board and then using a vegetable peeler instead of a paring knife to peel your apples will make quick work of the sixty or so apples required for this recipe.
Happy butter-making!
Ingredients:
- 30-60 apples, peeled, cored and sliced – peels reserved
- 2-4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4-1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2-1 tsp ground cloves
- 2-4 C sugar (more or less depending on the tartness of your apples)
Peel, core and slice your apples, putting all the bits except the cores in the crockpot as you go – once it gets full, put them all in a large bowl.
Add the desired amount of cinnamon, allspice, cloves and sugar, mixing well and then turn the crockpot on medium for ten hours, stirring occasionally. If it is cooking down too fast or burning, turn the crockpot on low.
After ten hours, fill the crockpot back up with more of the sliced apples and peels from your large bowl, mix well and cook for another 10-12 hours. Dont forget to stir it occasionally as you walk past it! If you can’t stir it, it’s ok. Mei and I went shopping and even slept through the night as this cooked down in the crockpot and it didn’t burn the pot or the house down.
Repeat the process of adding more apples, mixing and cooking down until all the apples have been incorporated. Then cook the butter down one last time until is nice and mushy with hardly any apple juices in it. Then taste the butter and decide if it needs more spices or not. Once it is spiced to your liking, use an immersion blender to puree the butter, and then continue cooking it until it is to the desired thickness. Then bottle up or store for your use!