Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Crock Pot Applebutter

I was inspired to make applebutter in my crock pot by this post from my cyber-twin Monica! And since I am all for cooking if it doesn't keep me in the kitchen all day, this was the perfect recipe for me! I had done this once before with some so-so applebutter that we had purchased and made the so-so applebutter into the best we had ever had...of course I did not write down how I came to that result. I am trying to take more notes on these little adventures in cooking, so when it turns out good I can actually reproduce it! This turned out really good, not perfect, but really good. Worth trying just to smell it cooking!

The ingredients:
2 large jars of no sugar added applesauce
(rinse out one of the jars to store the finished applebutter in)
1 1/2 cups organic sugar
4 tblsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 adorable 3 year old assistant (Lily)she loves and insists on helping me cook
Mix the ingredients in the crock. Cook on high for 12 hours and low for another four hours. Once it really started to simmer, I vented the lid with a butter knife placed across one end of the crock under the lid. This allows the sauce to reduce and thicken. I did stir it occasionally just to see how it was thickening, and to keep it from scorching around the edges. My crock pot gets pretty hot!
This is the finished sauce after I transferred it to a bowl, so we could have some warm and to let it cool before I put it in the jar. The two jars of applesauce made about one jar of applebutter.


Read more Kitchen Tip Teusdays at Tammy's Recipes!
Read Homemade Thursday at Ship Full of Pirates!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made 4 batches of crockpot apple butter this year. I had a ton of apples given to me and the recipe is basically the same, just peel, core and slice apples and put in crockpot (I even added a few pears when I had them). Fill the crockpot to the top, cover and let 'em cook till they reduce down a bit (about 2 hours). Add the sugar and spices and let it cook some more as per the directions in this recipe. You can put the cooled apple butter in freezer containers and freeze too if you don't think you will use the apple butter within in the 3-4 weeks (which is what the recommend for the maximum refrigerator keeping time.

I encourage anyone to try it. It's really not that difficult and the end result would make wonderful holiday gifts!!! Who wouldn't love a jar of fresh apple butter and homemade bread!!??

Just make sure you label the jars with the recommended 3-4 week refrigerator shelf life or instruct to freeze for future use.

Monica said...

Oh, this opens up a whole new world for me- APPLESAUCE! Forget about cutting all those apples. My girls ate through all our apple butter in no time.

Anonymous said...

Sure looks good!!!!
Hot Biscuits and applebutter!!
I will be right there
I love you
NaNa

Anonymous said...

I'm horrible about taking notes during cooking experiments too! I always kick myself for it later. This recipe looks right up my alley and I LOVE apple butter. Thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

That looks down right delicious! Thanks for linking! :D

Anonymous said...

YUM! We made a big batch of appley goodness last autumn from free apples picked on the Common nearby. I've never heard the word 'applebutter' but it looks like what we (in England) would call applesauce (?).
Anyway... it looks yum! :)