Apple Butter

It is already November which is hard to believe. October went by very quickly and for a good part of the month we were up to are eyeballs in apples. Connor, Chloe & myself went apple picking on the Thanksgiving Monday. It was a beautiful day and we came home with bags and bags of apples. The girls quickly got to making apple crumbles and I experimented with Apple Butters. My first batch was OK but I think I used too much water and it didn't thicken up quite like I expected so apple sauce was the outcome. The next 3 batches were great. They turned out thick and wonderfully deep reddish brown in colour.

Now I searched and searched for recipes on all my favourite blogs and food sites. The recipes I found were all very similar and the slow cooker method was the most popular. Also many called for using a food mill which I did not have so I improvised and used my ricer instead. It was quite effective though somewhat on the messy side.

As you can imagine we have been eating a lot of this apple butter and here are some of our favourite ways to consume it. Mixed into hot oatmeal for breakfast. Heated and poured over vanilla ice cream & mixed into vanilla yogurt.

Ingredients:

Apples ( as many as will fit into your slow cooker)
Sugar to taste
Cinnamon to taste
Nutmeg or cloves are optional

Start by cutting your apples into wedges including the skins and the cores and placing them in a large pot. The picture above shows the apples peeled but don't bother. Add a cup of water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and let the apples simmer until they are soft and mushy. Let them cool.

In small batches put the apples through a food mill or ricer and transfer the liquid to the slow cooker and discard the skins & pulp.

Set the slow cooker to high and stir in the sugar and spices. Let it cook for up to 8 hours stirring occasionally. When the butter is the consistency you like place into sterilized jars and process in boiling water for 10 minutes to ensure a proper seal of the jar.