Soft apple varieties work the best when making apple butter. They cook down faster and, in my opinion, give the apple butter a better taste. You can choose from a wide selection, including Braeburn, Cortland, Fuji, Ida Red, or McIntosh. For this recipe I used McIntosh apples.
The recipe is incredibly easy; all you have to do is chop up some apples. Contrary to the name, there is no actual butter involved. The apples go right into the slow cooker with honey, cider, cinnamon, salt, and cloves (if using). There is little cleanup to this recipe if you use handy dandy slow cooker liners. You can adjust the amount of honey depending on what apple variety you choose and how sweet it is. Also, if you do not have apple cider, water is a fine substitute.
After the apples are done in the slow cooker they should be pureed in order to achieve the right buttery texture. This can be done in a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender – whichever you prefer. The cinnamon-flavored butter is good warm, but I like it even better chilled. The butter will thicken slightly when it is chilled as well.
The apple butter can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks or frozen. This version is not meant for canning and long-term storage. A jar of homemade apple butter is a great gift idea for family and friends as well.
Ingredients
- 5 apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 2/3 cup apple cider
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Pinch of cloves, optional
Directions
- Place all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and stir to evenly coat. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours. Let cool slightly and puree in a food processor or blender until smooth.
don’t like to print your recipes it includes all the ads. have to throw away alot of paper. you need to have a print easy version of the recipes
Theresa, hi-lite the recipe, then when you do control-P, click the box for Selection instead of leaving the All circle clicked. If you want to save ink, click the tab at the top of that box labeled Properties, then click on Paper Quality, then in the box under Print Quality, hi-lite Fast Draft. After that just click OK at the bottom of both windows and you’re good to go. HTH
Thanks for the great recipes, ya’ll at PaleoGrubs! Love your site for all the variety!