Making Homemade Apple Butter

When it comes to Autumn, cooking, canning and your house smelling of cloves and cinnamon just all together. Apple Butter has been one of my most favorite foods since I was a very young child. I use to love it so much (and to be honest still do) that I could eat it right out of the jar!

I am going to walk you through each step as I made mine yesterday. First before I begin, why in the world do they call this apple butter? There is no butter in the recipe, it is not oily like butter-So why do they call it apple butter? Because butter refers to a thick, soft consistency product that is spreadable.  Apple butter is just that, it is suppose to be thick, smooth and spreads easily on bread.

Here is a list of things you will need:

5 lbs. apples, 1 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of apple juice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon of cloves.

A potato masher, a crock pot, a hand blender, (8) 1/2 pint canning jars

At my local grocery store they had a sale on a 5 lb. bag of golden delicious apples for $2.69 cents. Being a pretty frugal person I could not pass up that sale. So I thought, autumn is here why not make some apple butter.

Begin by: peeling, coring and dicing your apples in whatever size chunks you like. Place into the crock pot. Your crock pot is going to be filled, but don't worry the apples are going to cook down good. After your apples are in the crock pot, add the brown sugar and the spices and the 1/2 cup of apple juice. I cooked my apples on high for about 4 hours.

After the apples have cooked about four hours, make sure to stir them as often as possible. Use your hand potato masher and mash the tenderly cooked apples. At this point you want your apples to be tender but do not worry if you cannot mash all of them. Around this time your crock pot should be about three quarters filled with apples. Turn the crock pot on low and cook another two to three hours. You may want to stir them a couple more times. I did because I just love the way it smells.

After you have cooked the apples another two or three hours, use your hand blender and puree the apples until they are smooth and creamy. Okay at this point, I know you will want to do a taste test, and guess what that is okay (smiles) you may even want to do another taste test just to make sure the first taste test was correct.

When the apples are completely pureed, allow the apple mixture to cook another hour or so. You want the apples to be thick but not so thick that it clumps together. At this point you can even put your crock pot on warm and let the apples set there for a little while longer.

Oh, my goodness..are you amazed how this apple butter came out or what!? Okay, final steps and I am sure everyone who does canning, has their own methods. I am going to share mine with those who may not have ever done it before.

Make sure your apple butter is nice and thick. Remember as it cools it will thicken more. If by chance it is too thick, you and add a little more apple juice and whisk it together until it is nice mixed together.

Wash your jars making sure they are completely clean. I alwaysuse new seals, but know of people who will reuse old ones. I have never and would never reuse seals, just my personal opinion. I place the jars, lids and seals in my canning pot and set it on the stove.  I heat the pot on low and allow the jars to get nice and hot for about 15 minutes.  The reason you did this is so your jars will not break, and I believe it helps to sterilize them.

I move the pot with the jars close to my crock pot and by using a jar lifter fill one jar at time with apple butter. Then I place the seal on, and put the lid on loosely and set back into the canning pot. I continue to do this until all of the apple butter is in jars. Be very careful when filling your jars not to get any food particles on the rim of the jars.

I place the canning pot back on the stove and hot bath them for at least 25 minutes on low. After 25 minutes I lay a towel on my counter, lift each jar out of the pot and place on the towel. One of the most beautiful sounds is hearing your jar "PING" that assures you have a good seal.  It is usually at that point (after the ping) I will tighten down my lids.

There you have it- Homemade Apple butter!!

I love giving jars of apple butter as Christmas Gifts with a loaf of bread that I have made. Oh, my goodness... enjoy!!