Hello again, savvy savers! If you’re anything like me, you’re all about avoiding leftover waste. I detest is finding mason jars in my fridge at the end of the week with food needing to be thrown away. To me, food waste is just a missed opportunity to help stretch out my food budget just a little bit further.
With this in mind, and since it’s the last day of National Apple Week, I wanted to use up the organic apples I purchased last week and the leftover apples from my Crock Pot Apple Chai Cider recipe posted earlier this week to make a new Crock Pot Apple Butter recipe!
What I love about this tasty apple butter is it a truly low and slow recipe, but well worth the wait. Also, depending on the sweetness of the apples used, the amount of sugar used in this recipe can be reduced or removed from the recipe, which is always a bonus in my book. Couple this with this coming month’s drop in apple pricing, due to the harvest season, making this recipe an awesome canning recipe or potential holiday gift idea (paired with homemade bread or muffins), too!
Now, as mentioned above, I made this into a no-waste recipe by adding substituting two cups of the apples called for in this recipe with the cooked apples from my Crock Pot Apple Chai Cider. I was also able to add the spice sachet from the same recipe, too! The rest of the oranges and cranberries used in my cider will be frozen and used for Stovetop potpourri later in the holiday season as well. No fuss, no muss, no wasting, friends!
So, here is what the final product looks like post-cooking and emulsifying.
Lastly, here is what the apple butter looks like once it’s ready to be placed in my canner.
While I know this recipe takes some time to make, but I encourage you all to give this a try this season as it’s ever so worth the effort. Consider this: the average cost of a pint jar of apple butter in my area is $4.98. My cost for making six pints of Crock Pot Apple Butter: $4.56, making this recipe 80% cheaper than retail. Again, so worth the time, energy, and cost-effectiveness of this recipe!
Now friends, if anyone has any tips, tricks, or suggestions for making Crock Pot Apple Butter, I’d love to hear about it below!
- 10 cups apples (peeled, cored & chunked)
- 1 cup stevia (or organic coconut or cane sugar)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1⁄2 teaspoon allspice
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Put cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves, sugar, and kosher salt in a bowl. Mix well.
- Place apples in crock pot.
- Pour seasoning mixture over apples, and stir to incorporate.
- Cover your crock pot and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours, then turn crock pot to low.
- After 4-1/2 hours stir your apples.
- Cook for another 4-1/2 hours without a lid.
- On hour twelve, turn off crock pot and let apples cool for an additional hour.
- Once cooled, you will need to whisk or use an emulsion blender to increase smoothness.
- Once smoothed to your desired texture, spoon the mixture into clean, dry, sterile containers.
- Once your apples have cooled, you have several options for storage.
- Canning: You can water bath can your apples. I generally cook my apples in my crock pot then transfer to my Power Pressure Cooker XL and can in two jelly jar batches; be sure to follow all traditional water bath canning directions per your device(s).
- Waxing: Jars can be topped with paraffin lids and stored in the fridge for up to two months.
- Freezing: Jarred apple butter, once cooled and labeled, can be frozen up to a year.
- Enjoy!
6 Comments
I love apple butter. What a great way to make it quick and easy to make in your crockpot. I would like to invite you to link up with us at Family Joy Blog Link Up Party. Check us out http://thinking-outside-the-pot.com/?p=3022
Thank you for stopping by and letting me know about your party!
This looks delicious. The consistency looks so perfect. Great idea to make it in the crock pot.
Pamela, thank you! Yes, the consistency makes it really easy to smear on homemade, courses grain breads. Thank you for stopping by!
Will need to try this
Yes, it’s a must have in your pantry for this fall! I hope you will like it as much as I have. Thank you for stopping by, Linda! Have an awesome week!