Apple Butter Recipe

Good Morning!

I figured that my post seemed a little long yesterday with all those photos; so I decided to do the recipe in a separate post. This was easy and I didn't have any problems. I'd say this is another great recipe for a novice canner. [just avoid jelly and everything will be ok!]

Before we get to it, I have to tell you guys a couple things. First, the novelty of fall is just setting in for me so I'm really into cooking and using my stove & oven right now. Living in an apartment with no air conditioning really prevents me from doing this stuff in the summer. Second, I've found canning to be so fun and rewarding. I feel proud of the results when I succeed, that's why I've been doing it. So if you're interested, try it! It's really not hard. :)

Ingredients:

10 cooking apples, such as granny smith (I used small apples)

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup liquid [see note below]

1/8-1/4 tsp each allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, & nutmeg (according to your tastes, I used the smaller amounts of all except cinnamon, I used more of that)

1 tsp vanilla extract

[note: when I was preparing my apples, I had a bowl of liquid that was 1/2 lemon juice and 1/2 water to prevent my apples from browning. I used this as my liquid for cooking my apples, but you can also use apple juice]

Directions:

Peel, core and chop apples into six or eight pieces each. Place all ingredients in a pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Continue to cook over medium-high heat until the apples are very soft (try chopping with a plastic spoon). Once only a small, syrupy bit of the liquid is left in the pan, remove from heat and puree in a food processor or blender. [I found my apples to be too thick to process properly, so I added small amounts of apple juice until it would puree properly.]  For my own comfort, because I had added the juice, I put the apple butter back in a saucepan on the stove and brought it to a boil again. 

Pour the apple butter into your jars, leaving 1/4 inch of airspace. Process for 10 minutes. 

You can find a full rundown on how to go about the canning process here, if you need, and check out this post for helpful tips on how to do it at home without buying tons of equipment.