I can’t stop making fruit butter…help!
This time, I adapted my go-to pumpkin butter recipe and added cocoa powder and pure maple syrup to create a lovely chocolate flavour.
It’s a fun change if you are getting bored of plain pumpkin butter (not that that would ever happen). ;)
Chocolate Pumpkin Butter
Yield
3-3.5 cups
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Because we really need another reason to eat more pumpkin. I happen to think that every great recipe should have a chocolate version, don’t you? Adapted from my pumpkin butter recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree, approx. 3 1/2 cups or fresh
- 3/4 cup apple juice
- 1 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
- 3-4 tbsp pure maple syrup, to taste
Directions
- Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large pot and stir well. Cover with lid and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Sift in cocoa powder and stir well. Cover with lid (keep ajar) and simmer for about 35-45 minutes, stirring often, until thick & buttery. Be careful as the mixture bubbles and pops!
- Remove from heat. Stir in maple syrup to taste.
- Once cool, pumpkin butter can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. Makes enough to fill one large mason jar or about 3.5 cups.
Silky & smooth pumpkin butter with a hint of chocolate. Now we’re talking!
I also made another batch of Apple Butter.
This time I made “Naked” Apple Butter. No sweetener, no spices, just apples.
I also left the peel on and I added a 1/4 cup of apple juice. A few of you suggested leaving the peel on and blending, so I thought I would give that a whirl this time around. It cuts down the peeling time and also adds more nutrition.
I cooked the apples on HIGH with the lid on for 4 hours. After 4 hours, it looked like applesauce:
I cooled it slightly and transferred it to the blender. Be careful and make sure you don’t over-fill it. You might want to do this in 2-3 batches if need be.
Once blended, it turned into the silkiest, most magnificent, buttery applesauce I have ever tasted!!
I kept saying it looked and tasted like caramel. :)
Actually, it was a cross between applesauce and apple butter at this point.
Somehow I think you’ll find a way to clean the container…wink, wink.
I added it back into the crockpot and cooked for several more hours (with lid propped ajar) until it was the consistency that I wanted.
The only downside? 5lbs of apples made just 1 cup of apple butter. I think next time I will try adding more apple juice and not cooking it as long. Or I might even stop after the blender stage as it tasted incredible as it was!