Recipe: Making Apple Butter

/ Tracy M

So this is Washington. That means in October, we’ve got apples coming out our ears- I’ve got so many apples, I don’t know what to do with them- and I don’t even have a tree. At my local farmer’s market, I picked up a recipe to make apple butter. The best part? It’s EASY! You throw all the ingredients in the crock pot, cook it all night, and in the morning you have apple butter! And- second-best part- (because face it, I wouldn’t make it again if it wasn’t easy) it’s the best apple butter I’ve ever had.

I used a hodge podge of apples- macintosh, honeycrisp, fuji, gala, pippin and jonagold. It worked fantastic, but I have a feeling whatever you have on hand would be just fine, too. (although I wonder if you should maybe avoid the softer varieties like red delicious or yellow delicious- those would be my last choice)

Crock Pot Apple Butter

  • 5 pounds of apples, cored, peeled and chopped fine
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 or 3 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 of a fresh nutmeg, finely grated
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Throw all the ingredients in your crock pot. Cook on high for one hour, then turn to low for 12-14 hours. For the last hour, remove the lid so the steam can evaporate and it can thicken. I started mine at about 8 pm, and it was done by 10 the next morning. Plus, the house smelled positively divine when we woke up.

If you want it smooth (we did) run the hand-held stick blender in the pot for a few seconds, and then pack in freezer jars and enjoy. It’s SO GOOD.

19 thoughts on “Recipe: Making Apple Butter”

  1. Definitely want to try this. We have more than 5lbs worth of apples from our one tree. I don’t even know what kind they are but it looks like that won’t matter. Thanks for sharing!

    • Uhhhh…. lemme go look. Nope, doesn’t say. It’s a good size one, not the largest standard one they make, but maybe the next size down? The apples actually take a lot less room if you give them a quick whiz in the food processor. Five pounds fit about 3/4 of the way up the crock.

  4. I am stupid excited to try this recipe, we go through apple butter like its water!
    Bonus! Terry’s Berries (organic) Farm in Puyallup is now open for the pickin’ $.90 a lb!!! ;o)
    I know where my harvest will be going, thanks for sharing.

  6. Just a side thought from living in western NC — apple cider and applesauce are apparently much better when you use a variety of types of apples in them. It rounds out the flavor (I didn’t actually discover this myself, I was just told this by people who made awesome apple cider and applesauce). Your apple butter was probably even better because you had such a variety of apple types in it. It sounds delicious and my kids could even eat it, but I probably will never make it, because I despise peeling apples.

  7. My in-laws lost all their apples with a late freeze this spring so we couldn’t do apple cider this year. 😦 I’m going to have to buy some apples just to do this. It sounds so good!

  10. De-lurking for the first time to ask…roughly how much does this recipe make? Just wondering if I have to scrounge for more jars…

    Can’t wait to try it!

  12. I think we have enough apple sauce for the pantry – I’m doing this with the rest of the apples. I can kind of already smell it in my mind. Thanks for sharing your recipe – every one of yours I’ve tried has been wonderful.

    • So glad you like it! We are busting through it in nothing flat, and I’m going to need to put up another batch before all the apples are gone!

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