Apple Butter

 Homemade Apple Butter

Rich, silky, and packed with warm cinnamon flavor, apple butter is wonderful on toast, biscuits, pancakes, oatmeal—or straight from the spoon.

Ingredients

• 3 lb (1.4 kg) apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Slow-Cooker Method

1. Put the chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and salt into a slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on LOW for 8–10 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Once the apples are very soft and deeply browned, blend until completely smooth.
4. Stir in the vanilla.
5. If it’s still too thin, cook uncovered for another 30–60 minutes until thick and spreadable.
6. Cool and refrigerate in a clean container.

Tip: Naturally sweet apples such as Fuji, Gala or Honeycrisp work beautifully. You can reduce the sugar if your apples are already very sweet.

Storage: Homemade apple butter should be refrigerated and used within about 2 weeks, or frozen for longer storage. Don’t treat an untested homemade recipe as shelf-stable canned food.