Apple Butter

Last weekend, my mom, sister and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday making and canning apple butter in an event that we call Pioneer Woman Weekend. It started last year, almost as a joke. I was living in a house with an apple tree in the back yard. This resulted in more apples than I could ever eat. So I called my mom to ask how complicated it was to can things because I was thinking about making apple butter. She ran with the idea. The next thing I knew, my kitchen floor was sticky with apple juice, my house was full of slow cookers, and I was having a great time laughing and cooking with my mom. We started the apple butter in the evening, let it cook all night, and canned it the following morning. We enjoyed the process, and the apple butter, so much that we decided to do it again this year in my tiny apartment kitchen.

From L-R: My mom, me and my sister getting cozy & chopping apples

Before I did this last year, I did a bit of research. A lot of people recommended using slow cookers since they are perfect for cooking at low heat for a very long time. As for the recipe itself, it’s definitely not set in stone. We used about a bushel of apples, half a jar of cinnamon, and four slow cookers. My best advice is to use a variety of apples, taste as you go, and adjust the sugar and seasonings to your personal preferences.


Apple Butter
Makes approximately 30, 8 ounce jars

Ingredients
1 bushel of apples
3 c. white sugar
2 c. brown sugar
8 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. salt
4 teaspoons nutmeg

1. Peel and core the apples. Chop them finely and divide them evenly among slow cookers.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine white and brown sugars, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Pour some of the mixture over each pot full of apples.
3. Cover and cook on high for 1.5 hours.
4. Reduce heat and cook for an additional 12 hours, stirring occasionally. Apple butter will thicken and turn a dark reddish-brown.
5. Blend apple butter with an immersion blender to smooth.
6. Distribute into canning jars and process in bath of boiling water. The USDA has a good canning tutorial, which can be found here. They do a better job of explaining the process than I ever could.
7. Enjoy! Or, if you’re feeling generous, give to family members and friends as a holiday gift.