Recipe: Apple Butter

This was the easiest bit of canning I have ever done. We have several apple trees in our yard so I needed to do something with all those apples. All I had to do was peel and dice the apples last night while I was watching recorded episodes of True Blood (the wolf definitely pushed Eric out of contending as the cutest guy on the show) and put them in water and lemon juice. Then this morning I drained and rinsed them, threw them in a crock pot on high with some sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and right before I left for work I turned it down low. Then when I got home from work I took the cover off to cook off some of the juices still in there while I sterilized the jars and started making supper. Poured the apple butter in the jars and processed them. Soo easy, so delicious and my house smells wonderful! Here’s the recipe


Crockpot Applebutter
5-6 lbs apples, peeled, cored and diced
4 c. sugar ( I used splenda)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
Put apples in crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir. Cook on high for 1 hour. Cook on low for 9 hours. Take off cover and cook ½ to 1 hour longer until juices have been cooked off. Pour into mason jars (leaving 1 in. headspace) and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

To process jars: Sterilize jars. Clean off any food from rim of jar so lid will create a nice seal. Place lid on jar and screw on cap, not too tight. Place jars in pot of water, enough water so it covers the tops of the jars by 1-2 inches. Bring water to a boil. Once water is boiling, start timing for 10 min or as recipe states. Remove jars from water and unscrew caps to dry off rings so they don’t rust in storage. Screw caps back on. Lids should be slightly depressed in the middle and shouldn’t move up or down when you press on them. If they do, store in fridge and use up right away.

I was a little intimidated when I started canning on my own. My mom always did and I would help her when I was growing up, but it seemed more scary when I was trying it on my own. It’s not, it’s so easy and now I make pasta sauces, stewed tomatoes, applesauce, pie fillings, and canned fruit. Next year I’m going to try making some jams. If my dad can do it, so can I, right!