What to do with all those apples?

Originally posted on ReasonableSeason.com on November 5, 2015.

So, Tracy and I love to take a weekend drive through the country side to buy direct from our local farmers. But it turns out we really need to start eating more fruit because that half peck of apples we bought ended up not moving out of the pantry very quickly at all.

Problem: Apples will be going bad soon!

Solution: Apple Butter!

This is what 3 1/2 pounds of Northern Spy look like when you turn them into apple butter!

Apple Butter

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

11 hours

Total time

11 hours 30 mins

 

The “recipe” below is the result of researching online and tweaking things to suit the amount of apples I actually had. Roughly, you need ¾ to 1 cup of granulated sugar per pound of apples. The other ingredients you will need to play with to suit your tastes. To make the batch you see above, these are the proportions I used.

Author: Gordon

Recipe type: Crockpot

Cuisine: Homestyle

Serves: 2¾ pints

Ingredients

• 3½ pounds Northern Spy or Granny Smith Apples (or probably any kind of baking apple)
• 3 cups white granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves or 6 whole cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon or ½ stick cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Peel, core, and cut apples into chunks (no need for a fine dice).
2. Mix sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Put apples into your crockpot and pour dry ingredients over before mixing well.
4. Crockpot goes on high for 1 hour, then switch to low for about 10 – yes, 10! – hours, stirring every hour or so.
5. When the mixture starts to turn brownish, I whisked every hour instead of stirring.
6. When the time has passed and your apple butter tastes great, put into mason jars and let cool before refrigerating.
7. Note: This recipe is not a substitute for canning and jars are NOT meant for long-term storage. Food must be properly canned before storing otherwise the food will spoil and can be deadly if consumed.
8. To learn how to can visit: https://www.freshpreserving.com/canning-101-getting-started.html
9. This recipe recommends that you consume the apple butter within 2 weeks.
10. Again, keep refrigerated.

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