Getting in the Mood for Fall

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Apparently the process of making apple butter was once a tedious and boring act. But since I found this crock pot recipe, I'll never have to go through what my mother remembers with an adverse shudder, something about stoking fires and cast iron pots...who knows. But to say this apple butter was easy would be an understatement. To say it was "good" would also be an understatement. Enjoy!

Step 1. Peel, slice, toss into crock pot. One of the recipes I adapted from suggested using Gala and Granny Smith, which is what I used for this run. Apparently, the more tart the better the flavor of the butter. My downfall here already: I don't have an apple corer. Next time I pass a Pampered Chef booth at a craft show or someone has a book party, I must snag an apple corer. It would make the first step of peeling/coring/slicing the apples go a LOT quicker.

Once they were peeled and sliced, I cut them up a little more into smaller chunks, just to help along the cooking process. 

Step 2. Mix the sugar and spices. 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 T cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Step 3. Sprinkle. Combine the apples in the crock pot with the sugar and spice mixture.

Step 4. Cooking Phase 1. Turn crock pot on HIGH, cover and cook apples for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. After an hour, they'll start to get mushy all on their own, and some people leave them to their own devices to cook fully down, but I wanted to make sure my apple butter wasn't lumpy so I went ahead and mashed them up right there in the pot.  

Phase 1 (cont.) After they were good and mashed, this is when I added vanilla. 1 tablespoon's worth. I figured it would bring out the flavor more if the vanilla simmered with the apples all night instead of being burned off on the high setting during that first hour. 

Step 5. Cooking Phase 2. Having turned down the heat to LOW setting, cover the apples and let cook 8-10 hrs. I let mine go overnight, stirring every hour until I went to bed. I will admit, I got up once during the night to stir it but that's just because I'm a bit of a paranoid OCD freak so I had to check to make sure I wasn't messing anything up....

...and to my delight, it turned out perfectly! I woke up to an inundation of Fall smells and now have an abundance of apple butter to get me through the season. See the final product and full recipe below!

Full Recipe

12-15 apples, different kinds

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 T vanilla

Peel, core, and slice apples into smaller size chunks. Toss in crock pot.

In med size mixing bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, and cloves. Add to apples in crock pot.

Cook covered on HIGH for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 

After 1 hr, remove lid and mash the cooked apples if you desire. Add 1 T of vanilla.

Cover and cook on LOW overnight, or 8-10 hrs, stirring occasionally. 

Can/store finished apple butter product!