Apple Butter Recipe

I made this for the first time a month or so ago, and it was gone right quick. I like this recipe because it uses up a lot of apples, and my husband declared it "good enough to buy apples just to make this". It's not hard by any stretch, but it is time-consuming, so keep that in mind before you start. We have spread this on biscuits and bagels and toast. We have baked it into crescent rolls and pocket pies. I could also see it on pancakes or waffles. Hrm....

Apple Butter Recipe

3 Cups Apple Juice or Cider
3 lbs Apples (I use a combo of whatever I have on hand, usually fuji, golden delicious, red delicious and/or gala.)
2 Tbsp to 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples
1/2 Tsp (more to taste) Cinnamon

Bring the apple juice or cider to a boil in a large pot or dutch oven. Reduce to simmer and simmer for about 15 minutes. In the mean time, peel, core and chop the apples. (This is the only recipe that I actually peel the apples for.) Add the apples to the juice, cover and cook for about one hour, stirring occasionally, until very soft. Remove the pot from the heat and grab your handy dandy potato masher. Get in there and mash the apples as much as possible. Stir in the cinnamon and brown sugar and return the pot to low heat. Continue cooking over low heat until very thick and all the liquid has cooked off, as much as one hour longer. If need be, you can continue mashing any lumps out as the mixture thickens.




I haven't (yet) canned anything, so I just put this in a container in the fridge. I can't say how long it will actually keep, the first batch I made was gone inside of two weeks!