I’ve always loved teaching.
When I was a young girl, I used to play school with my stuffed animals and any friends that I could trick into being a student in my class. I made an Attendance List (the students didn’t always show up on time!) and I taught math, writing, art, and deep life lessons from a 4th grader.
Turning to my stuffed duck “Quackers”, I would often say, “Quackers, why were you late for school this morning? I’m going to have to see you after class today.”
Sighing, I marked a big “L” beside his name.
“Jonathan and Annabel, please stop talking while the lesson is being taught.”
”PLEASE STOP TALKING CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANNABELLLLLLLLLLL”
It wasn’t always roses and puppy dogs.
While I didn’t end up becoming a teacher, I do like to pretend I’m one on the blog. I also know when you’re skipping class!
But today, I’d like to be the student. And I think you can help…
I’m on a fruit butter making kick.
Earlier this week, I made my beloved pumpkin butter in a slow cooker and turned out wonderfully.
I’ve been spreading it on everything and mixing it into oatmeal. As soon as I see sugar pumpkins at the market, I will be making pumpkin butter from fresh pumpkins later this Fall.
After my pumpkin butter success, I decided to make apple butter. I’ve never made it before, but I absolutely LOVE it. I researched about 10 different apple butter recipes, trying to decide the best way to make it (there are a lot of methods!). I decided to go with the most popular apple butter recipe on All Recipes with 5 stars and 525 reviews. Although, without the 4 cups of white sugar…
I added fresh ginger, ground cloves, cinnamon sticks, 1/3 cup Sucanat, and a 1/4 cup of apple juice instead.
Then I bought 5 pounds of local, sweet apples!
It took me just 10 minutes to peel 5 pounds of apples. Not too shabby!
(That picture only shows half the apples)
I diced the apples. I added cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, apple juice, ground cloves, and a touch of Sucanat.
Mix in slow cooker:
I heated on high covered for 1 hour. I waited.
Then I turned the heat to low, still covered, and cooked for another 15 and 1/2 hours. I waited. I may have slept.
I came downstairs hoping to find thick and dark apple butter, but no such luck. I think it’s somewhere in between applesauce and apple butter right now!…
I’ve been cooking it on medium heat, uncovered, for a couple hours so far this morning.
And I’m praying for a miracle.
Anyone have any words of advice for me? Did I make it all wrong?
I know this is out of the blue, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you…it’s been way too long since I’ve commented (I’m still reading, though!!). You were such a great encourager when I first started my blog, and I can’t believe I’ve been doing it now for about two years! I feel like it’s already come so far, and there is still a ton for me to learn!
Love ya, Ang! You are a beautiful woman, inside and out, along with a great example for all of those healthy living bloggers out there
XO.
I would definitely move the lid to let some of the moisture out! I make mango butter like that too :)
I just made several batches a few months ago. I think some apples have more water content and take longer especially if they are just picked. We have several trees so we always have a lot of apples. The recipe I used for crock pot apple butter says to put the apples in the blender near the the end of the cooking process and lightly pulse to the consistency you want. Then return the apples to the crock pot and cook UNCOVERED for the last hour checking and stirring as needed. It worked perfectly. I also made big batches of applesauce, and my favorite was apple pie jam.
That looks awesome as is, but continuing to cook it with the lid off might cook off the rest of the excess moisture.
It looks yummers to me!
–Jaclyn T
Silver twig necklace GiVEAWAY on my blog:
http://positiveponderings.blogspot.com/2011/09/necklace-giveaway.html
Just keep cooking it! Usually when I make apple butter in the crockpot, I cook it over night (8-16 hours) with the lid propped open the whole time to let some of the liquid evaporate. Then blend with a stick blender at the end to reach the desired consistency. Good luck!
Hmmm…I actually think it looks great!!
You know what’s funny… yesterday afternoon the weather was getting a bit nippy and I thought to myself, I want to make apple butter! SO RANDOM. It looks to me like you’ve got a chunky apple butter. Maybe puree it ?
You have given me so much to learn, and so I wish I could give back. But I have absolutely no idea! Although, I totally pretended to be a teacher too. I was even going to school for it, when I realized it is so much more fun to be an aide or volunteer in the class than the actual teacher.
I use a similar recipe as you and at the end I use a stick blender to get everything nice and smooth and then cook on high without the cover until it’s the desired thickness, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Hope it’s yummy! :-)
Hmm wish I could help! But (and you might already know this) if you’ve lowered the sugar content of the original recipe, it might not be shelf stable. Not sure how you were planning on storing it but in the freezer might be best.
You & I played the SAME game! Except my brother was a student too (needless to say, he was always the teachers pet haha)
Props for the rapid apple peeling. I have one of those apple pealer core remover things that you twist the apple on, best invention EVER. We have a place in the foothill called Apple hill. We make a yearly day trip up to pick apples, sample apple wine, try all the other apple amazements. It is great fun! I can’t wait for fall to kick in.
Not sure if this will help but here’s how I make mine:
lots of apples
leave peels on
chop into pieces
into the crockpot with cinnamon
cook on high for 8 hours or so, until it’s really thick and dark
puree with hand blender.
I have made multiple batches like this over the years, and it always turns out. And I’ve never needed to add sugar or sweetener of any kind – though that may depend on the type of apple being used.
Good luck!
If you find it still has to much water you could leave the lid off and let most of the water evaporate. I love adding arrowroot to thicken up fruit sauces. You’ll probably need a couple of tbsp of arrowroot powder to 1/4 cup of cold water. Stir to mostly dissolve and add to the liquid you want to thicken that is warm or hot. You’ll see it thicken up right away :)
Oh I forgot to mention ….YUM!!! Can’t wait to try the recipes. I love pumpkin butter and anything with apples :) Thanks for your amazing recipes.
At least what you have looks amazing!!
Can’t wait to find out the trick to finishing it!
Homemade apple butter sounds amazing…the fact that I can make it in a slow cooker is just icing on the cake!
Zero advice from me – I’ve never made apple butter and don’t even have a slow cooker! But good luck! that pumpkin butter looks amazing!
Hey Angela!! Just wondering about the Glo Bakery, are you still doing that? When will it be re-stocked!? I am anxiously waiting!
Hey Erin,
I’m sorry that I don’t have any in stock- I had a sale Wed. and everything sold out super quickly (I think 5 mins or so!). I wish I could make an unlimited supply. I will be sure to update the shopping cart when I know when the next release date will be.