Have you ever had apple butter before?
I tried explaining it to Kevin, but he thought I was talking about butter with apples mixed into it. Or, maybe something like peanut butter where you just grind up apples and spread it on sandwiches.
Apple butter is neither of those things; it is a dark, thick, concentrated spread that’s made by cooking down apples for hours. The natural sugars in the apples make it perfectly sweet, and cinnamon and nutmeg give it a rounded, distinctly fall-flavor. It’s sort of like applesauce, only thicker and much, much better.
By now you know I’m an apple hoarder. The past two weeks I’ve posted almost exclusively apple recipes, and there’s no sign of quitting anytime soon.
Sorry.
But, not really.
This apple butter helped use up a big chunk of my stash, since I could fit 18 apples into my crockpot. Somehow, there’s still more than 20 left.
Send help.
This recipe takes a looooong time, (hello, slow-cooker) but couldn’t be easier. Into a crockpot or slow cooking device of your choice goes enough chopped apples to fill it to the top. You don’t even have to peel the apples or be careful about how big/small you cut them; it’s all getting slow cooked and puréed at the end. On top of the apples goes apple cider, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a splash of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
Cover it with the lid and let it cook on low for 9-11 hours. Then, crack the lid, stir the apples, and let them keep cooking with the lid partly off for another hour. Once the brown apple mush is cool enough to handle, you just dump it into a food processor or blender, add a splash of vanilla and a pinch of salt, and get it nice and smooth.
I’m guessing you could speed this up by slow-cooking on high for 5-6 hours, but I always like the longer cook time. I let mine cook at night while I sleep, and in the morning the entire house smells like apple pie. I also find the 9-11 hour cook time makes it convenient to cook the apple butter while I’m at work, and leaves some flexibility in case I’m running late or happen to forget about it.
This apple butter needs to go on your fall recipe to-do list, ASAP.
It’s simple, hands-off, and yields about 5 cups of thick, aromatic apple butter.
Spread it on toast, muffins, scones, and any baked good your heart desires. Swirl it into cake batter; slather it on pancakes and waffles; stir it into oatmeal and yogurt. It even makes a great sandwich spread with sharp cheddar and honeycrisp apple slices.
The best part is, you could can it to use all winter, but it lasts for about a month in the fridge, and makes a great gift for friends and neighbors. Trust me, the 5 cups of apple butter this recipe yields gets used up by the two of us well before it has a chance to spoil.
I hope you’ll give this easy, minimal-effort apple butter recipe a try! On top of being a completely addictive fall treat, it happens to have no added sugar, and is totally appropriate for just about anyone’s dietary or allergy restrictions.
Well, unless you’re allergic to apples (which one of my 7th graders is this year). In that case, come back soon, I promise Baked Greens hasn’t become a site dedicated exclusively to the picking, storing, and eating of apples.
If you make a batch of apple butter this fall, let me know how it turns out! Comment below, or tag me on Instagram with #bakedgreens so I can see your favorite way to use this thick, apple-licious spread.
Crockpot Apple Butter (No Sugar Added)
Ingredients
- 18 small-medium apples
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- 1. Cut each apple into 4-6 large slices, removing the cores (don't peel the apples). Place apple chunks, cider, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vinegar into the bowl of your slow-cooker.
- 2. Cook on HIGH for 9-11 hours. Remove the lid, and stir the apples. At this point, it should look like dark, chunky applesauce. Let the slow-cooker continue cooking on low for another hour with the lid cracked. This will let steam escape and help reduce some of the liquid.
- 3. Turn off the slow-cooker. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, transfer it to the bowl of a food processor or blender, add vanilla and salt, and blend until smooth.
- 4. Store apple butter in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month, or freeze/can extras for long-term storage.