Homemade Apple Butter Recipe

Our apple tree is raining apples.  Literally.  I go outside everyday with the kiddos to pick-up apples off the ground.  I have almost been brained a couple of times from kamikaze apples dropping from the tree.  Even though we had nothing to do with the planting and cultivating of said tree, I am driving myself crazy trying to use all the apples for something.  I hate seeing so many go to waste!  After a successful canning session making applesauce, I decided to try apple butter with the "fallen" apples (apples that are on the ground, not apples that went to the high school dance with the bad boy).

Apple butter must have been "invented", when the pioneers were making applesauce and forgot about it on the fire for a long time.  Applesauce cooks low and slow and eventually is cooked down into a silky, butter-like consistency.  Add in some sugar and spices, and it is a delicious condiment.  I found lots of recipes online, but mostly adapted mine from http://www.pickyourown.org/applebutter.htm.

Ingredients:
Makes about 8 pint-sized jars of apple butter

Applesauce, divided (either jarred or homemade from about 20 lbs of apples)
2 cups brown sugar, divided (I used brown; the recipe above uses white; other recipes don't use any and some recipes use up to 4 cups of sugar)
2 T cinnamon
1 t cloves
1/2 t allspice

Step 1-  Make the applesauce.  I did homemade again and it took about 20 lbs of apples- 2 full large pots of cut-up apples.

Step 2- Put the applesauce into a large crockpot until it is 1" from full.  Since I made my applesauce, I didn't have time to do the crockpot in one day so I put the applesauce in the fridge overnight and started my crockpot at 8 pm the next day.  I had about 6 cups of applesauce leftover so this went back in the fridge for later.

Step 3-  Add 1 cup brown sugar and spices to applesauce and stir.  Cover, leaving a gap to let out steam.  Based on the advice from the website above, I used bamboo skewers to prop my lid up a bit.

Turn the crockpot on low and let cook until it is reduced by about half.  This took about 12 hours in my crockpot.  I did stir it a few times but didn't have any issues with it burning on the sides.  Remember all crockpots cook differently... mine seems to cook pretty evenly and heats up pretty slowly.

Step 4-  Add in the rest of the applesauce and 1 cup brown sugar and combine.  I had about 6 cups left and it filled the crockpot back to 3/4 full.  Continue to cook on low, partially covered for 2-3 more hours.

This is a good time to get your jars ready.  Wash them in hot, soapy water and then sanitize in the dishwasher on the "sanitize" cycle or on the stove in boiling water for 10 minutes.  Put the lids in a bath of almost boiling water for 5 minutes (do this right before you are ready to can).

Step 5-  I wanted my butter really smooth, so I used a hand-held blender to smooth it out.

Turn the heat on your crockpot to high and get it to boiling so it is ready to can.  (If your crockpot doesn't get hot enough to make it boil, move the apple butter to a pot on the stove over medium high heat).

Step 6-  Carefully poor the molten (lava-like), hot apple butter into the hot jars 1/4" from the top.  Put on the lid and lightly tighten the ring.

Step 7-  Process the jars by putting them in boiling water (1" over tops of jars) for 10 minutes (check this based on your altitude!).  Take them out carefully and put the processed jars in a draft-free place overnight.  After they have cooled, check to make sure the button is depressed.

Processed correctly, these should last 2-3 years jarred or 2-3 weeks in the fridge.  So far, we have had this on toast and on graham crackers (F's favorite).  I am excited to try some melted over roasted pecans and sprinkled with salt.  Sounds like the perfect fall treat to me!

My Accidental "Naturally Grown" Applesauce

One of our coolest inherited items on our farm is a huge, beautiful apple tree.  The tree sits on the south side of our house and gives great shade where the kids like to play.  Last summer, we had just moved in and were going through a drought so we totally ignored the tree.  We picked up fallen apples and threw them into the neighboring field but other that that, did nothing.  This summer, we enjoyed watching it bloom, than again forgot about it as we got busy with our other projects.  And then came the caterpillars... and caterpillars... and caterpillars.  They were literally falling from the tree.  And though E loved collecting them (calling them "Mr. Caterpillar") we had no idea how to get rid of them.

E with "Mr. Caterpillars"

I research online and found out we should have sprayed our tree in the spring to prevent the caterpillars from making bags all over the tree.  So, we made a note to do this next spring and again, ignored the tree.  Well, August has come and our tree is filled with apples ripening.  Lots of apples have fallen to the ground so I started researching (my favorite thing) things to do with "yucky" apples since it seemed wrong to just waste them.  I learned you could make applesauce out of these apples as long as they were sweet and not sour (like Granny Smith) apples.  We don't know what kind of tree we have (we are guessing Jonathon) but Andy taste-tested and declared them sweet so it's applesauce time!

Esther and I spent a few days picking up apples from the ground that still looked pretty good.

Several websites I read said you can often ask apple orchards for discarded apples as they keep bags of them in the back for cheap so if you don't have an inherited apple tree sitting in your yard, this is a good option.  A lot had worm holes (due to not spraying) but I was confident we could cut out the bad sections. We collected a lot in just a few days.  I washed the apples in cold water right before I was ready to use them.

Once the apples were washed, I used my apple corer to cut and core then checked the slices and discarded any that were too spoiled.  I didn't find any bugs (thankfully).

My discards went in a bucket for the compost heap (circle of life).

The good pieces went into a large pot with an inch of filtered water (you can also use apple juice).

I filled up the pot with apple slices, put the lid on, then put it on the stove over high heat.  Once it started to sputter, I turned the heat down to medium.  It took about 20 minutes for the apples to turn to mush.

Once they were REALLY soft, I put them through a hand-cracked food mill.  You can also use a strainer or KichenAid sieve/grinder attachment.  I thought the food mill worked fine for $30 and didn't take much time at all.

Once the applesauce was made, I put it back in the pot and kept it warm while I did another batch.  (It took me two full pots for all the apples I had collected). The only thing I added was cinnamon.

Meanwhile, I prepped my jars by washing them in warm, soapy water and then sanitizing them in boiling water for 10 minutes. (The instructions on the Bell jar box)

The lids were put in a pan with hot, but not boiling water for 5 minutes.

Once the applesauce was ready, I spooned it carefully into the jars, cleaning up any that got on the outside or rim, to a 1/4" from the top.  I set the lid on top and gently tightened the ring around them.  The filled jars were put in a large pot and covered with water 1" above the lid.  For my sea level, the jars needed to boil for 15 minutes.

 I lifted the jars out of the water with a jar lifter and let them cool overnight.

Once the jars cooled, I checked their seal by making sure the button in the middle was pressed down.  So, by completely forgetting about our apple tree then ignoring it once we realized it was infested with caterpillars, we ended up with 8 jars of FREE, naturally-grown applesauce!  I call that a yummy win.