I’m still slowly giving in to the fact that fall is arriving. Not that I’ll be putting my sandals away for boots anytime soon. But I’ve enjoyed filling my kitchen with the smells of fall the past couple of weeks. And this week, the whole house had an autumn aroma thanks to homemade apple butter.
The slow cooker is my best friend in the kitchen. Being a working mom, it’s nice to come home to a dinner that’s already done instead of having to break out the pots and pans to cook. But the slow cooker is good for more than just one-pot dinners. It’s ideal for apple butter as well. The smell of those apples and spices slowly melding together is hard to beat. Here’s a great recipe I found on Pinterest.
Homemade Apple Butter in the Crock Pot (by Frugal Foodie Mama)
- 8-10 apples- peeled, cored, and chopped or sliced
- 3/4 cup of apple juice
- 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 3 whole cinnamon sticks
Toss the chopped or sliced apples in the Crock Pot. Then pour in the apple juice. Dump in the brown sugar and the ground spices and then stir to mix. Add your cinnamon sticks to the mixture.
Turn your Crock Pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours. Every hour or so, stir the mixture to make sure the cinnamon is getting mixed in well.
Remove the cinnamon sticks and then ladle about half of the cooked down apples to a blender. Blend until smooth. Mix back into the slow cooker with the remaining cooked down apples and spices. If you prefer a completely smooth apple butter, puree it all in batches in a blender.
**Note: please make sure to let the apples cool slightly in the blender before placing the lid on and blending. The heat from the apples will cause the lid of the blender to get vacuum sealed on if you try to blend them before they have cooled somewhat.
