Crock Pot Apple Butter

More fall recipes…

I love fall and fall recipes. I love apples and pumpkins, and so does my daughter.

So here is another fall recipe. It’s easy, healthy, the munchkin loves it, and uses my favorite kitchen appliance – the crock pot. (OK, the coffee part is actually my favorite, but you don’t cook with the coffee pot.)

I felt like a cooking rock star when I tried this recipe for the first time. Yes, I know when you read the recipe you will think I’m crazy because it is so easy. But I never would have though it would be this easy to make homemade apple butter. 

The most time consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the apples. It takes a lot of apples, but I didn’t peel the apples for this recipe, which saved me a ton of time. After cooking the apples, I put the apple butter in my blender. I have the oldest, worst blender ever, but it worked anyway. After blending, you can’t taste the peels.

This recipes makes 4 cups of apple butter. 

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Ingredients:
5 pounds apples (about 14 apples), cored and cut up
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves 
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

1.  Fill a large crock pot with apples almost to the top.  Cover and let stand at room temperature all day.

2. Add spices and toss apples. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours, or overnight. (I did overnight.)

3. Remove the lid and let the apple butter cook an additional 2 to 8 hours on low until the butter reaches the desired thickness. (I cooked mine for 4 hours.)

4. Turn off the slow cooker and let cool. Then transfer butter to blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Store in plastic containers. The butter can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. (I refrigerated half of my apple butter and froze the rest.) 

Note:  I used Golden Delicious and Molly apples to make this. If you use tart apples, you may need to use sugar. The original recipe called for 2 cups of sugar. 

This recipe is based on a recipe from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook is a great cookbook!

[Photo Credit: Apple]

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