Is there anything better than homemade apple butter?

Apple butter is not a single invention by one person, but rather a preservation method with roots in medieval Europe. It originated in Germany and the Netherlands, with monasteries in those areas using it to preserve their apple harvest. 

The Pennsylvania Dutch, who are actually of German origin, later brought the practice to North America, particularly to Pennsylvania, and it then spread throughout Appalachia and the American South. 

This is how they used to make apple butter! It was a slow, laborious process.

My mom and I made apple butter every year. We’d get a bushel of apples and spend a fun day working together.

Cooking apple butter typically takes eight to twelve hours in a slow cooker on low heat. This long, slow cooking process allows the apples to break down, caramelize, and develop the rich, sweet flavor characteristic of apple butter. 

Here’s my easy recipe. Even though it’s easy ingredient-wise, it’s going to take a long time for the apples to cook down, so be patient, otherwise, you’ll end up with a lot of applesauce.

Ingredients:

🍎 Apples, a lot of apples. I used the ones from my tree so I know they’re organic and free of any pesticides.

🍎 Cinnamon…I add a massive amount of cinnamon because that’s how we like it, so add as much or as little as your taste dictates.

🍎 Water

🍎 That’s all you need, except this time toward the end of cooking, I tasted the concoction and added two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and three tablespoons of sugar because my apples were VERY tart. (ACV brings out the sweetness, too.)

First, core and cut the apples into medium size pieces or chop them smaller, whatever you feel like doing is fine. No need to peel.

I started the cooking process on the stovetop, rather than in the crockpot, because I had too many apples to fit and I needed to wait until they cooked down before transferring. This is when you add water, about 1/2 cup to one cup depending on the amount of apples you have.

Add cinnamon.

Cook over medium heat for about an hour, stirring ever so often so the bottom doesn’t burn. I used a potato masher to make sure the apples were all getting softened.

When it looks like applesauce, carefully spoon into a blender and zap until smooth.

After that, transfer it into the crock pot and cook on high for four hours. Stir every once in a while.

After that initial four hours, turn the crockpot on low for twelve hours to cook overnight. Keep the crockpot top cracked open or condensation will form and drip into the pot and make the apple butter too watery.

If you like it super smooth and creamy like we do, blend it one final time.

And this is the finished product, so good you’ll want to eat it with a spoon. It looks like chocolate, doesn’t it? YUM!

While it’s still warm, I store some in glass canning jars in the refrigerator to eat right away, and freeze the rest.