Making apple butter

I have always loved apple butter, but up until a few years ago I had only bought the stuff at local craft shows. And then, a fortunate thing happened - well, for me anyway. A friend of mine had a large apple tree in her back yard that had fallen during a storm and she called to see if I wanted to come over and get some apples. I had no idea what I would do with them, but I said sure and loaded the car up with some laundry baskets. A few hours later, I returned home with 4 laundry baskets full of apples. Without any clue what to do, I began to search the internet and found a great recipe for crockpot apple butter. It was a little time consuming, but in the end the apple butter is amazing. That first year I did a lot of experimenting (I had a lot of apples!) and added caramels, chocolate and liquers. At the end of it all, I found the recipe with an orange liquer was the best.

I made another big batch of apple butter last year when we bought our house and discovered 3 apple trees! I used the same recipe and it was a huge hit. We can't keep it in the house because our friends are always asking for more.

Be sure to check out my Hard Apple Cider lens, too!

What you'll need:
apples
Crock pot
white sugar
brown sugar
cinnamon, nutmeg
orange liquer
apple cider
Jelly canning jars w/ lids
soup blender, or food processor

Start with any kind of apple, you'll need about 20 or so medium sized fruit. I personally like tart apples, so I mix half tart with half sweeter variety.

You'll need to core and peel the apples. A great investment is an apple corer and peeler. They're about $20 and can be found on ebay an amazon. They will save you a ton of time, not to mention your hands.

After you have peeled and cored the apples, place them in the crockpot. fill the crockpot all the way to the top because the apples will really cook down - so it's ok if you have a mound of ingredients before you start cooking.

Next, add 1/3 cup apple cider, 1/3 cup grand marnier, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 3 cups white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. Like I said above, you will have this big mound heaping over the top of the crockpot. No worries - just start cooking without the lid. Don't try to stir it at this point - you'll only make a mess. Trust me. Cook on 'high'.

After an hour or two, the apples will have started to cook down enough that you can stir it a little bit. I will usually stir once or twice and hour after this. You'll want to cook it for about 8-10 hours. When it starts to become a nice caramel brown you're ready for the next step.

Once you've achieved the nice caramel brown color to the apple butter and it's been cooking for about 8-10 hours, you're ready to blend it. I use a soup blender, but I've also read of people using a food processor. If you use a food processor, I would let the apple butter cool for a while first. If you use the soup blender, you can blend it right in the crock pot while it's hot. Just blend until you get a nice apple butter consistency.

Now for the canning. Don't let this part intimidate you because it's really very easy.

You want to get a big soup pot and fill it about halfway up with water. This will be your water bath for sealing your jars. Start boiling the water while you get everything else ready. Once the water starts to boil, I will put the lid RINGS and the empty jars in the water to sterilize them. Boil them for about 10 minutes and you'll be fine. Remove and put to the side. Take your sterilized jars and fill to about 1/4 - 1/2 inch from the top with your blended apple butter. I then take a dinner knife and go around the apple butter and the jar inner glass a few times to remove any air bubbles.
Wipe off any excess apple butter from the rim with a clean wet cloth. Place the flat lid with seal on the jar, and secure with ring lid. Place the jar in the boiling water bath. Make sure the water covers the top of the jar. I can usually get 5 or 6 jars in my pot at a time. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove each jar and set to the side. Within a few minutes you will hear little popping sounds coming from the jars. This is the sound of the jars sealing.

Your apple butter is now ready to eat or give away!

Enjoy!!!

Give the gift of your homemade apple butter for holidays, teachers, housewarmings and more.

Create individualized labels for your apple butter and decorate your jars w/ fabric or ribbon for an adorable gift that everyone will appreciate. This is a fun and thoughtful gift that everyone is sure to love!