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?
Omg. I just had a dream about apple butter…you are PSYCHIC! Looks delish :)
I think you’re on the right track–trying to cook off the water. I hope there’s a happy update coming soon. :)
I have never made apple butter, but want to someday. Apple butter was always a favorite of mine growing up!
PS: I made your Apple Pie oats this morning and LOVED them! It was the perfect breakfast for a very chilly MInnesota morning!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
It looks delicious! Its been cooking for a while, I wonder if taking t for a spin in the Vita Mix would get it to the consistency you want?
Do you think that you need to add more apples? Personally, I think it looks delicious!
I need to go home and make this! Love your new header:-)
That must smell incredible! I thought about making homemade apple butter but it’s so much easier to buy it! :)
I love making apple butter! I always use a stick blender at the the end to smooth it out and give it the right consistency. Also, I don’t really use a recipe, but just add apple cider, cinnamon, and ground cloves and it turns out great! Good luck!
Last year I made the apple butter recipe from my beloved crockpot book Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.
If I remember right, I cooked the apples on low for several hours and then took the lid off and cooked it a couple more hours on high. My apartment smelled AMAZING. If memory serves, the total cooking time was around 8 hours.
apple butter takes a long long time to get to a lovely thick buttery consistency. just keep cooking it!
i usually start with making apple sauce and then put the spices in with the sauce in the slow cooker and it still takes many many many hours, so don’t give up yet.
Wish I could help. but I’ve never used a slow cooker. I always thought of it as something my grandmother used, but they are popping up all over lately. Time to break down and buy one tr try. :)
Good luck!
I found a recipe for apple butter on The Kitchn and they said just to cook applesauce on low on the stove top until it turns into apple butter….So it sounds like you’re on the right track. Here’s the link if it helps.
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/apples-galore-how-to-make-apple-butter-097454
It still looks delicious though! I would happily eat it up in it’s current form. I’ve never made apple butter before so I don’t know what to tell you – hopefully all it needs is more time?!
I’d assume that cooking it longer would eventually evaporate more of the liquid, and concentrate those yummy flavors. I’d probably throw it in the Vita-Mix to finish! Wish I could be more help, but I’ve never tried making apple butter, either! Google is usually my best friend in situations like this. ;)
Hope you figure it out!
Angela, I make apple butter every fall. It makes for great Christmas gifts, and everyone always loves it. This is how I do it. I core the apples and cut them in half (no peeling required). I bake them on a cookie sheet with a some water until they are soft. Then, the peels just come right off, and I scoop out the soft flesh. I blend most of it in the food processor, reserving some of the cooked apple mush to stir into it after the rest is pureed to give it some texture. Then I add the sugar and spices and cook it in the crock pot with the lid tilted for 8-10 hours. I sometimes have to add in a bit of apple juice throughout the cooking if it cooks down too much. The consistency is perfect, and the flavors get very concentrated.
Thanks Julie!
But what do you do if it doesn’t thicken to the right consistancy…mine is somewhere between applesauce and apple butter…just keep cooking it?
I hope it comes out well! I wouldn’t have used the 4 cups of sugar either, that’s a bit much no?
I think it’s on it’s way to deliciousness. Even if it doesn’t completely break down, chunky apple butter is probably great. This post reminds me that I’ve really been neglecting my slow cooker.
No clue — but I would have a hard time waiting that long for it to work! It looks incredible and I would love to lift up the lid and get a big whiff. Yum!
Oh my goodness. Such memories. The first apple butter making experience involved me as an 8-year-old helping my Mom and a friend. I managed to badly slice my hand with an apple peeler. . . The second apple butter experience was just with my Mom. We got everything going. I think we were trying an oven-baked version, as opposed to stove top. We went off into the living room for stories, and then my brother and I went to bed. The next morning, I found out my Mom and fallen asleep, or gotten into listening to the radio or something. . . and the apple butter was burned! However, my Mom managed to salvage some of it (though you still kind of had a burnt apple taste on your toast from the spread).
Anyway, on both occassions, though, everyone was surprised how long it took for the water to evaporate (as is what lead my Mom to forget about it in the oven, I think). So, have no fear, you are on the right track. Just be sure to monitor it every hour. (wouldn’t want a burnt apple butter story to appear on your blog in a couple weeks. . .).
Thanks so much!!
Oh no!!! I hope it turns out [i just wrote “oat” bahaha] edible at least!! That was a lot of apples! :) Seriously…must.make.pumpkin.butter.now!!! I remember guzzling that stuff last year. p.s.imissyousomuch