Foodie Friday: A tribute to our fall-ish weather… Apple Butter!

Well since I have not been able to get back out to get more apples… the apple canning experiment has been slow. As you can see above I have 8 more jars to fill in the above case, not to mention the 3rd case I have not even opened…. oh and the case of 1/2 pint jars I bought.  Not to say I have to fill them all, but I do hope to make several more batches of this stuff

Apple Butter. I have known about this wonderful culinary treat since I was little, but for some weird reason (not so weird if you know my eating habits) I had never tried it until this year when the Mr. wanted to buy some.  It is wonderful on the rolls and bread I make and I have really enjoyed it as a base for the white pizzas I make (weird huh).

Anywho, making fruit butters in the crock pot is my new favorite thing, it beats standing in from of the stove stirring for an hour +.  I looked up all kinds of recipes, mostly through one of my favorite websites: FoodGawker and came across this one…

Apple Butter

Makes approx. 1 1/2 pints

3 lbs. Granny Smith apples
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Peel the apples, don’t be meticulous, if a little peel gets left on it’s all for the better. Core the apples. Chop into fairly uniform chunks.

2. Combine with water in 6-8 quart pot. Bring to a boil, cook until apples are softened.

3. Add sugars and spices, stir to thoroughly coat apples.

4. Using an immersion blender puree apples until completely smooth. 

5. Lower temperature to medium-low. Adjust to keep at a constant simmer.

6. Stir, scraping bottom, every 10-15 minutes – depending on rate of simmer – for 4-5 hours. 

7. Apple butter is finished when color has turned to a dark, deep brown and the flavor has turned from sugary sweet to caramel-like.

When it comes to recipes such as these I feel I have a little room to play with measurements based on my own tastes.  I am not a huge clove fan or allspice for that matter so I cut back a little bit on those.  This is basically what I threw into the crockpot after I cleaned and semi cooked my apples… I used roughly 9lbs of apples, 3 cups of B&W sugar, 4 cups of water/juice/chai tea (creative liberty) mixture, a good splash (or 3) of lemon juice, various amounts of spices, and 10 hours in the crock pot = roughly 4 pints of Apple

I tasted the apple butter to determine when it was done and it turned out quite lovely. Sadly I was out of bread so I did not get to clean the crockpot out (the dishcloth did that though).  I hope some of you might give it a try, who knows maybe I’ll mail somebody some this year.  I’m sure to have an excess after it’s all said and done.  Now off to get some sleep, a long day of editing and cleaning is ahead.  At least I will be able to let some nice fall-ish air in while I work tomorrow.

 

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