Perhaps it is a bit early for such fall classics, but the inn that my Husband and I stayed at for the second part of our honeymoon served amazing apple butter (along with other goodies) each morning for breakfast. I recently discovered that you can make apple butter pretty easily using a slow cooker. With a bit of time to kill before we continued working on our cinnamon bread {Pioneer Woman recipe link}, I figured I would prep my first batch of apple butter using my trusty crock pot. The amounts look small, but I didn't want to waste a bunch of apples on my first attempt. Also, I happened to have three apples in the fridge so, three apples it was.
~ 3 apples (I used gala), peeled, cored, and chopped
~ 3/4 cup of white sugar (The other recipes called for A LOT of sugar. I used far less, even considering that I was scaling down the actual amount I was making. I used white sugar because we didn't have any brown sugar on hand. Weird- I know. Anyhow, I would like to experiment with sugar amounts in future batches.)
~ 1 tsp. cinnamon
~ 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
~ 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
~ 1/4 tsp. allspice
~ 1/4 cup of water
~ 1 individual container of apple sauce (They were giving them out as samples at our Whole Foods yesterday so I figured I would toss it in there.)
I mixed the spices together and then put the apples, spices, water, and apple sauce in my slow cooker. I left it on high for 1.5 hours. After an hour and a half, I gave it a good stir and reduced the heat to low. I continued to stir it occasionally for the next 5 hours until it started to look like really chunky apple sauce. I broke up the large chunks with a masher until there were just some smaller chunks here and there. Then, I left the cover off and cooked it for another 2 hours. To get an even smoother consistency, I poured it all in my blender and whirled it up! (Or, one could use a hand-held immersion blender.) I then poured it in an old (but clean) jelly jar and popped it in the fridge.
Overall, it was very easy and though it took awhile the hands-on time was minimal. (Silly me though- I started the process at 4:30 p.m. This really didn't jive with my trying to go to bed early to prepare myself for a Monday through Friday 4:30 a.m. wake-up during the school year.) Next time, I think I will experiment with the sweetener or use another fruit like blueberries. Yum!!
Enjoy!
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