Crock Pot Apple Butter
From time to time I run across a person who has never heard of apple butter. When I am finished gasping in horror at the wasted life they have led up until that point, I make it my first order of business to slather some on a biscuit and get it to their mouth as soon as possible.
We are very fortunate to have our Cracker Barrel restaurants, where you can get an apple butter fix any time of day. The Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is also a favorite by all who have been there and had fresh apple butter spooned over a hot apple fritter. Heck, we even have some good brands in our grocery stores such as Bama brand apple butter (Which I just found out is actually made by Welchs and available only in the Southeastern United States). Still, when it comes to filling your house with yummy scents and filling your tummy with spicy goodness, nothing beats homemade.
Apple butter is surprisingly easy to make, especially with the help of a crock pot. Still, folks seem to be intimidated by it. Perhaps its the complex taste of the spices combined with how few people actually do make it anymore which causes it to be shyed away from in our kitchens. There is no need though as making apple butter with this recipe is likely one of the easiest things that I’ve posted so far!
So, while my biscuits are baking for the picture later (which will be posted at the top of this page once I’m done), let me walk you through a truly impressive delight which will draw wows from all you serve it to!
Our ingredients are: Two large jars of unsweetened applesauce (three pounds or fifty ounces), sugar, 3 lbs granny smith apples, apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Exact recipe is at bottom of page.
“Chip” your apples like we did in the apple pie (If you have not read the apple pie tutorial, you now have your first official homework assignment). Do this by peeling them and cutting little chips of them off. Place in large crock pot along with both jars of apple sauce, sugar, spices, and a bit of apple juice (exact quantities at the bottom). If you feel like it is too much sugar for you or too much cloves or allspice, just do a little less. The beauty of this recipe is that you cook it all night in the crock pot, then taste it in the morning and add what you prefer to make it to your taste. You can also use Splenda instead of sugar! My advice in doing that would be to put a wee bit less Splenda than the amount of sugar it calls for.
Stir well and cover with lid. Cook on low overnight, eight to ten hours.
Just to be mean, I like to wake up first thing, take the lid off, and give it a few fans just to make sure the house is thoroughly saturated with apple butter smell. This is about as close to heaven as you can possibly get while still drawing breath. It will look something like this, nice and brown with a bit too much water in it. This is where you will taste it and see what you want to add. I am including the exact quantities I used at the bottom of this recipe. Leave the lid off and continue cooking for a few hours until it cooks down a little bit. “Cooks down” is how old folks say “its too runny, you need some of that water gone!”.
After it cooks down a bit, fill up pint or quart jars and seal. If you go through the process of canning this, you can simply leave the jars on a shelf in your pantry. Otherwise you would need to refrigerate them and use within two to three weeks. You can also place in jars and freeze to keep it longer without having to can it. Personally, I ended up with eight pints of it. My company ate almost two pints at dinner after having finished making it that day. I sent a few pints home with them, gave one to another neighbor, one to another…..and so on and so forth. Long story short is, out of eight pints, I have one left for my own personal use. ~grins~ Now that’s when you know you’ve done good!
Crock Pot Apple Butter Recipe
2- 3 lb (50 oz) jars unsweetened apple sauce
3 lbs granny smith apples
4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups apple juice
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
Peel and cut apples into small chips. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Cover and cook on low overnight (eight to ten hours). Remove cover, stir and taste. Add more spices or sugar if desired. Continue cooking for a few more hours, uncovered, until some of the liquid has gone and butter has cooked down a bit. Pour into jars and refrigerate (unless it is canned properly).
Serve over hot biscuits, toast, scones, or just eat it out of the jar if no one is looking!
Christy gave me this recipe years ago and I am so thankful for it! This is the easiest way on the face of the Earth to make fantastic home-made apple butter! I had some this morning on my cinnamon raisin English muffin and as always, it was magnificent!
Just because she sends me all these wonderful dishes, my opinions are not purchased in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Christy IS truly a fantastic chef and she does everything with a flair like only she can do!
I honestly never heard of apple butter before, and as a noob I must say I’m a bit intimidated by the color.
But reading your description, that’s bound to taste great!
Mindless_Rambling:
~grins~
We have a place in Alabama called Constitution Village. Folks dress as they did in colonial times and re-enact them in a colonial village setting while tourists walk around and experience it all.
My first encounter with Apple Butter was on a school field trip as a young girl to Constitution Village. We walked in and the smell hit us, actually before we even reached the village from the parking garage. The smell…like apple pies, cinnamon, cloves, and Christmas all rolled into one - and this was May I believe. We couldn’t wait to see what was creating such a magnificent smell.
Finally we happened upon a sweet little old lady stirring this divine concoction in an large black iron kettle over a fire. She lifted up a spoon to show off apple butter which was almost as black as tar. Trust me though, after smelling it, there wasn’t a kid on that trip who wouldn’t have gladly ate the entire pot!
It really is a very unique treat, just think “browned” apple butter…aw heck once you smell it you’ll eat it even if it were purple! ~grins~
@southern plate
Haha, great story!
Apart from the recipes, I’m loving your style of writing and the stories/information shared in those recipes as well.
I’ll be back for more, no doubt (especially know that I know the apple butter won’t kill me, lol)
Keep cooking
Mindless_Rambling:
You have put a smile on my face that will easily last the rest of the day!
Thank you so much!
@southern plate
haha, I hope it last another day!
(don’t you love the internet when it lets you make another person smile on the other side of the planet?!)
In the mean time I’ve been reading your fried green tomatoes….yes, I’ve seen the movies, but no, you can’t buy those here, haha. I’ll be on the lookout in specialty shops though, and in the mean time I’ll just drool all over your pictures (sorry about that).
Your three year old sounds like a bright little kid by the way, requesting the one ingredient everybody loves…chocolate!!
Dear regards from Holland
@,@
Holland?
WOW.
Oh my.
Wow again!
Oh I wish I could send you some green tomatoes, but they ripen so fast they’d be sure to be red by the time they got there!
Maybe you can give chocolate gravy a go!
Holland………..wow!
Yup, still smiling. Internet is a great thing!
I make Apple Butter in my crockpot too! Yummy! Yummy!
Thanks for submitting this to the Carnival of Home Preserving!
I came across this site by accident-now I’m stuck. I dearly love apple butter-have never found one store-bought that had flavor! This is so much faster than starting with the apples like I usually do, I can’t wait to try it in the crockpot! I will be trying many of your recipes, being from the NW they are quite different than I am used to and I can’t wait!Drool, drool, drool….
Anonymous:
I am thrilled you found us! Sit down and get comfy and if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know!
Thank you for your kind words, I’ll do my best to keep delivering!!!
~Christy
Thank you for this recipe! My husband is insane for apple butter and goes through it pretty regularly. I’m going to make this soon and drive him wild with that smell!
Great blog, too! I love how you cook!
Another great looking recipe!
I remember growing up in Michigan, my mom made a huge crockpot full of Apple Butter (about the only use the crockpot ever got, really.) She kept it simple - just lots of apples, water, and cinnamon, but it was better than any store-bought Apple Butter we could find.
There is no better memory for me than a big dollop of Apple Butter plopped on a Ritz cracker. MMmmmmm-mmmm!
JennyDee you are a woman after my own heart! Most folks only think of apple butter in conjunction with biscuits. Me, I think of apple butter as the main course and toss in whatever edible serving piece is available!!
Glad to meet you, Jenny!
I’ve just been making a bunch of spiced jam in my bread machine and this spple butter will be perfect as fall approaches - yum!
Oh Seabird, I know whose house I’m going to this fall!!!!
Thank you for visiting, come back anytime and sit a spell!
Thank you again for participating this week’s Carnival of Home Preserving!
The post is live if you haven’t seen it already.
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/carnival-of-home-preserving-jul-21-2008.html
Be sure to submit one for next week’s edition. Jennifer at QuiverFull Family is hosting.
Feel free to share the link to this week’s edition of the carnival to get the word out to others and bring in more participants.
Happy Preserving!
Laura
I love apple butter, though I’ve never made it myself. I’ve only had it at restaurants or bought it in the store. One of these days I’d love to make it, as it would taste great on some homemade biscuits.
Oh my goodness am I glad I stumpled across your website. I love southern cooking as my parents are from Kentucky and I grew up on southern food. Reading your comments, and receipes takes me back a spell or two!! OMG I even started talking with a drawl just from reading.
You have one my heart (okay stomach too) with your receipes already. Especially the Fried Green Tomatoes OMG add some fresh out of the garden green beans with shellys and onions boy I tell you… Yumm-o
I will have to try the apple butter and let you know as I love apple butter.
P.S. You are now my favorite receipe place. I have been to the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge and if this receipe is like that then boy I have found the right place.
Kitchen Confit: I’m sorry I didn’t respond sooner, this comment slipped under my radar! Thank you so much for reading and if you do try it, please let me know!
Donna K- Thank you so very much for your wonderful comment! I love hearing things like this, makes it all worthwhile and keeps me motivated to do more!
I do hope you’ll come back often and if you ever have any questions or special requests, please let me know!
Christy
Being the self-declared King of Apple Butter, I must say my nose turned up at the idea of your crock pot apple butter.
The ease of the recipe ate at me for days, then combined with the wonderful results of your Country Bob’s Beef Stew recipe, I caved in and made “da butta”.
Thinking it was blasphemy to not cook down apples and sugar in a copper kettle over a fire, the ghost of my dear Mother haunted me as I peeled the Granny Smith’s, poured in the apple sauce, and the rest of the ingredients.
It is absolutely wonderful “butta”.
Well worth the investment of time, that’s an understatement. Made it two nights ago, and put in containers in the fridge. My wife has carried off over 50% of the booty and given it to friends at work, and this morning she took a container, made hot biscuits, and fed everyone in her office. Needless to say, I’ll be pulling out the crock pot and brewing up another batch over the holiday weekend. No need now to wait till Fall and peel and stir till my arms want to fall off.
You ROCK!
I am absolutely stunned at the gravity of this compliment. Thank you so very much. I hope you got my email thank you!
Thankyou, thank you, wow, thank you!
Christy
And to think I had things to do this weekend! Now where do I get a crock pot in edinburgh? Hmmm…
I love the crockpot apple butter recipe. If I may make a suggestion, if you use 1 can of apple juice concentrate instead of the apple juice, its a stronger flavor and also cuts down on the liquid that has to evaporate. Thank you for sharing this recipe - my crockpot is heating up!!!
I love your blog! I regularly use it for recipes and ideas. My new husband and I just moved to Georgia from California, and I’m enjoying exploring lots of new cuisine! I just finished up making and canning some apple butter using your recipe and tutorial. I’m getting a head start on Christmas gifts! This was my first attempt at canning, and it came out great! My husband had never had apple butter before. When I told him I wanted to make it and ship to family for Christmas, he was worried about the “butter” melting during shipping! He’s so adorable! Of course he tried some with some fresh biscuits this morning, and he’s hooked now!
Super easy and super delicious!
Hey Pamela! I actually have a friend in England and I sent him to get a crock pot a few months back! He is loving it so far! Let me know if you get to try anything and thanks for reading!!! Sorry so slow to respond to this!!
Helen Great idea! The main reason I use apple juice is because my daughter has this special brand she likes and she gets so excited when I buy it! I don’t normally buy apple juice unless I need it for a pie or apple butter but your idea is GREAT! Thank you!
Newly Mrs. You are so sweet!!! Thank you!! That is precious what he said about the butter, too! I am so glad you are enjoying Southern Plate and the recipes are working out for you! I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know! Comments means so very much! Did you subscribe by email yet to get the weekly printer friendly recipes I am emailing out?
Gratefully,
Christy
If I started with ALL apples, instead of applesauce - how many would I use? We went orchard picking and I have about 1/2 bushel.
Hey Christy,
I have never read a blog in my life (well I did read one concening a plant that I could not get to grow) anyway…. I found your web site when I was looking for a crock pot apple butter recipe. I subscribed and got my first end of the week recipes last week. I loved them and I love looking at all your recipes!!! Its really fun to see all the pictures that you include with each recipe. Thanks for showing the “world” what Southern cooking is all about. There’s no better way to eat, is there?
By the way, the apple butter turned out great. Just ask my neighbors!
Christy how much apple butter does this recipe yield??? I want to make and can some.
I made and canned this apple butter using your recipe and tutorial last night/this morning. It came out great! If you don’t mind, I posted pictures of my results and such on my blog. I have made this twice now and noticed a difference in flavor which I think was due to the type of allspice I bought.
I made this apple butter this morning Christy. Its 6 am and my house smells heavenly. I cant wait to can it in a few hours. Its so pretty and brown in color and taste wonderful.
I have several recipes for apple butter, and I truly thought I had the best and the most easiest, until === I read and of course I had to try your recipe, thinking,, yea right something so simple has no flavor,,, oh I was wrong,,, and I don’t like sharing that part, however.. it is just wonderful, and I would truly love to have more recipes from you. Love to cook and love to share recipes, keep sharing please, Donna
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Southern Plate recipes and stories by Christy Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.southernplate.com.
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