Apple Butter

Not only is it Blackberry Apple Jelly time it’s Apple Butter time.  I can’t say that it is a favorite of mine but it is my mom’s and so I make it for her. Don’t get me wrong it does taste good, really good. I just can’t eat it on bread or toast like she does. I still had a bunch of apples left from the jelly so decided to make a batch of this last night.

I found a very good recipe at Simply Recipes.  I tried a crockpot recipe a couple of years ago to disastrous burnt results.

I really should have waited for the weekend for this because I don’t think it really cooked long enough but it should still be good.

Enjoy the recipe!

To start out you’ll need 4 lbs of apples, I used my favorite Honeycrisp.

1 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 cups water

Sugar (about 4 cups or so)

Salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon (I used a couple of tablespoons of prepared lemon juice, didn’t have fresh lemons on hand)

Other equipment you’ll need:

A large pot (about 8 quarts is perfect)

a food mill (that cool silver bowl with handle)

Sterilized jars and lids

Cut the apples into quarters. I cut them in eighths.  You don’t need to peel or core them, cook ’em as is.

For the first stage of cooking you’re going to cook the apples down to mush. Put them all in a large pot, add the vinegar and water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cook until apples are soft. The recipe says about 20 minutes, I probably cooked them twice as long to get them real mushy. Remove from heat.

Ladle the apples into a food mill and mush it up into a large bowl.

Measure the puree in the bowl.  For each cup of apple(sauce) you’ll need 1/2 cup of sugar.  I had exactly 8 cups of apple mixture, so used 4 cups of sugar.

Add apple and sugar to large pot. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add a dash of salt, the cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice, lemon rind and juice.

Cook, uncovered, in large pot on medium low heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. This method takes about 1 to 2 hours. You can cook it at a lower heat, which is what I did. That way I didn’t have to stand over it constantly. Stir occasionally, making sure to get everything off the bottom and sides of the pot. This method takes about 3-4 hours.

Cook until thick and smooth…really smooth is best. A small bit spooned onto a chilled plate (put it in the freezer for a few minutes) will be thick, not runny.

Pour into hot, sterilized jars. Put on the lids and tighten. Place in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes about 3 pint jars or 6-7 half-pint jars.

To get this recipe in full go to Apple Butter on Simply Recipes.

Enjoy!