I recently got a whole bag of apples from a friend - 11 pounds worth of apples required some quick thinking about what I was going to do with them. I decided I wanted to try making Apple Butter - I did it several years ago and it was pretty easy and yummy. The first thing I did was ask my mom if she had a recipe - which she did but it turned out it wanted me to do a few things that weren't included in the directions :/ So instead I did a quick search for a recipe and came up with this one. It was simple and seemed easy enough. So I started peeling, coring and slicing my apples...If you ever need to do more than a handful of apples I would recommend one of the handy tools that does all 3 at once - Best Thing Ever!! Even with the tool, it took my around 45 min the get through all the apples (they were on the smaller size). I split them into 2 pots since I didn't want to drag my huge pot out, which turned out to be a good thing since I found out I only had 2 cups of sugar...what?! After searching my cabinet I confirmed I was out of regular sugar, but I did have brown sugar - well that sounded like a good option to me. Since I had two pots I made one with white sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg (I always leave the ginger out, but the original recipe does call for it) and the second one had brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice. They tasted fantastic, the regular sugar one was actually spicier to me than the brown sugar one. I figured it would be the other way arounf because I used allspice, but I think it was the cloves that added the hint of extra spice. but I thought they were a little more like spicy applesauce in consistency than what I thought apple butter would be like - I'm sure I just didn't let it simmer long enough (it was around 2 hours). I also chose to not can them - I was too lazy lol. So instead I put them in jars and put them in the fridge.
They can last 2-3 weeks in the fridge or up to a year in the freezer.
Traditional Apple Butter:1 pound any variety apples, washed, quartered and cored
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
Brown Sugar Apple Butter:
1 pound any variety apples, washed, quartered and cored
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Combine apples and water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until apples are broken down and look like applesauce, stirring occasionally. Put the apple mixture through a strainer or food mill. Mix the apples and spices, return to a simmer. Let simmer until the mixture thickens and sticks to an upside down spoon. Either can the hot apple butter, or allow to cool and place in the fridge or freezer.
I hope you try making this. It really is simple, and if you don't make it thick enough - it is REALLY tasty applesauce!! It's also good on just about anything you want to put it on - like the yummy scones Felicia made me :)
Have a great day!
Beth
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