Crockpot Apple Butter

[Saponomancer]

I've spent the last three days on this! Gathering, preparing and cooking, then canning.

The taste is spectacular, and I thought I'd share my recipe:

Crockpot Applebutter

8 lbs apples, washed and quartered (I also used destemmed crab apples)
2 c apple cider vinegar
2 c water
4 c packed brown sugar
4 tbsp pumpkin spice blend
2 tsp vanilla

The apples, vinegar, and water go into the crockpot, set on low for 12 hours.

At twelve hours use an immersion blender to blend it smooth, then put it through a strainer to take out any seeds and large chunks of skin.

At this point add in your brown sugar, spices, and vanilla and let cook down for another ten hours , with the lid propped up by a chop stick to allow water vapor to escape.

Can in clean jars, and water bath for fifteen minutes

 

[cmzaha]

Yummy, I love making apple butter. Have you tried pumpkin butter it is to die for if you love butters

 

[shunt2011]

I love and make both apple butter and pumpkin butter. Usually every other year. My favorite things to make in the fall. Thank you for sharing your recipe.

 

[lsg]

I have made apple butter in the crockpot and it was soooo good.

 

[SunWolf]

Thank You for the recipe, butters are so wonderful on good old home made bread. Have you tried it with pears yet? Yyummyyyy, love me some pear butter!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I've made apple butter in the crockpot as well. Sooooo good! I start with two 5qt crock pots full of chopped apples, and halfway through I can dump one crock into the other to keep cooking down. Is just delish.

 

[tbeck3579]

I have an orchard full of organic apples and apple butter is a great way to use them. I think I'll try making cider this year. One of the apple butter recipes I came across used a little orange zest, and it quickly became my new favorite. Just adds a layer of flavor that is hard to figure out, but very tasty. There is a family that makes apple butter in their copper kettle outside. They have a wonderful fall festival. They use a little anise but I'm not a big fan of the licorice taste. They love it though. Everyone has their favorites. I will offer my apples and I'm sure they will take them. My apples are organic, and they aren't pretty because I don't use chemicals. You have to scrub them and people don't won't to do that. Bizarre. Excellent organic apples that look gorgeous when you scrub them and taste like honey crisp -- very pricy to buy but people won't scrub 'em?? Afraid of them if they don't have wax holding in cancerous chemicals, lol. Go figure.

 

[Saponomancer]

Haha, yes I have tried pumpkin and pear butters! I've pretty much loved anything we've had a go at making over the years and we make a danged lot of canned goods.

I'm going to have to remember the orange zest trick!

I guess ours would be considered organic too? We don't spray or put any chemical fertilizers on our little apple trees, but we also don't sell, its strictly family and friends only

We actually planted the trees when I was a little girl, they're so big now, only three survived- and a persimmon, and a crab apple, I'm very sad the peach trees left us ):

 

[tbeck3579]

Dragon, over the past 25 years I've planted various trees in the orchard. Peach trees have had the shortest lifespan of any. Sometime back I read they have a 7 year lifespan -- I honestly don't remember if that was a reliable source but from my experience I would say it is reliable. Apple trees have worked out very well so I have a lot, including one that was planted well before my time. Of course black walnuts live a very long time. I have one that is at least 150 years old. The problem, I don't like black walnuts. I like almost every nut known to man but I'm not fond of black walnuts -- just my luck. Persimmons live a very long time and I have several of them. I like persimmons. You need to know when and how to harvest or they are sour, and you have to be quick about it. Cherry trees have done okay, better than peach. I started using Mulberries this year and I really like them. They are similar to blackberries. Harvesting is the issue there. My next soap adventure I will try to color with Mulberries. It's fun to explore and I always like to hear about other adventures with strange trees.

 

[kchaystack]

We had a peach tree growing up in our backyard. every couple years it would not fruit, but then the next year we were giving peaches away to all the neighbors. That went on for almost 12 years before we moved, so maybe it depends on species.

 

[Saponomancer]

We had a peach tree growing up in our backyard. every couple years it would not fruit, but then the next year we were giving peaches away to all the neighbors. That went on for almost 12 years before we moved, so maybe it depends on species.

and the climate,I think

I'm pretty sure it gets too cold here, it was killing off the blossoms every year, so we almost never had peaches, and the trees were really struggling before they died