Simple Apple Butter
We’re fortunate to have enough room on our property to have a number of apple trees as well as multiple vegetable garden plots. And, we enjoy growing, harvesting, and utilizing the vegetables and fruit. One great way to use an abundance of apples is to make a Simple Apple Butter to enjoy all year.
Every year we enjoy a great harvest of multiple apple varieties but this year we had a particularly heavy crop. My preference for the best tasting apple butter or applesauce is to use multiple varieties with different flavor profiles. I like to keep the seasonings to a minimum and let the natural apple goodness shine. And, to keep it even more simple, we usually skip the peeling but we do core each apple to make sure we get any possible insects or funky spots cut out. We do keep our edible garden as organic as possible and since we don’t spray our trees, we do experience some insect damage. But, it’s no big deal to cut around the damage or just leave those fruit for the birds to enjoy.
Simple Apple Butter is a delicious topping for biscuits, scones, or toast. It’s made from apples, but it doesn’t actually contain butter or dairy of any kind. In fact, it’s vegan! Apple butter has a hint of warm cinnamon spice, but mostly it just tastes like apples. Intense apple flavor comes from ripe apples cooked down and concentrated to their essence with minimal enhancement. It’s really in a class by itself. Not a jam or a jelly, although it can be used in much the same way. And it is not quite the same thing as applesauce either. It’s thicker, smoother, and has a more concentrated apple flavor.
You can make this recipe in small batches for quick use or, make a huge batch and preserve it by pressure canning or water bath canning. We use the pressure canner for additional food safety. This time of year we keep the pressure canner handy for all of our garden bounty. Without canning, the apple butter will keep in the refrigerator for quite a while. But, canned, it will keep for much longer at room temperature in your pantry.
This recipe couldn’t be easier. Wash and core the fruit, place in a large stockpot or Dutch oven with the spices and just enough apple cider or orange juice to get the fruit to start simmering, and cook until soft. When the fruit is soft, break them down with an immersion blender, food processor, or food mill, return everything to the pot and continue cooking until it’s as thick as you like. Stir often to avoid scorching. Taste your apple butter throughout the process to adjust seasonings and sugar to your preference. Add the lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar) at the end to brighten up the flavors.
Simple Apple Butter
Ingredients
- about 10 pounds apples cored
- 1 cup apple cider or orange juice
- 1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- juice of half a lemon about 1 tablespoon
Instructions
- Place the apples, apple cider, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a large pot, and cook over medium-low heat, uncovered, (stirring occasionally) until the apples have become very soft (about 1 hour).
- Use a hand blender to puree the mixture (or ladle it into a regular blender or food processor in batches) until smooth.
- Place the puree back into the pot and continue to cook, uncovered, (stirring occasionally) until thick, velvety, and deep in color (about 1-2 hours).
