A little bit of Apple Butter

I was browsing through some blogs, and an old colleague of mine said that she had made apple butter in the crock pot. I had never done that before (I had never made apple butter, period!), so I searched for an easy recipe.

Approximately 3 lb. apples
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
Dash of salt
3/4 cup water or fresh apple cider

So. . .that was one recipe. . .and I pretty much did that, minus the adding water/apple cider (since later on in the recipe they ask you to boil it down to very little moisture anyway. And I added less sugar, something I read on another blog, that suggested if I were using sweet apples, maybe not as much sugar was needed.

So, I followed directions as needed. . .but then when I got to the part that suggested I take the lid off of the crock pot to get rid of excess water, I did something different--so ground-breaking! I decided to drain it. . .and make apple cider with the extra apple juice. Brilliant, I know! (See my "pioneer method" of getting apple juice?)

 I don't have a hand blender, and when making apple sauce, I usually just use a potato masher if I do the crock pot variation because we don't mind it chunky on occasion. So for this recipe, I put the drained apple sauce into the kitchen aid to make it smooth. So easy, so fast!

Then I added the spices, and needed to boil it one more time in a sauce pan (or crock pot again. It was getting late into the night, so the sauce pan was quicker. More dishes, yes, but it got me to bed before my alarm clock went off in the morning!)

And the kids like like it--including he BIG one. . .but not E. He thinks it is just smoother spicier applesauce and that doesn't belong on bread. Oh well. . .it is getting gobbled up anyway!

Happy fall food preserving!