Crock Pot Apple Butter
For instructions on how easy it is to can this apple butter, please click here. Thank you so much for reading Southern Plate and don’t forget to check back in tomorrow for another apple recipe! Gratefully, Christy
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. 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 brought you so far!
I like to put my apple butter on to cook in the slow cooker just before I go to bed and let it cook all night long. When I wake up in the morning, the house is filled with the most delicious and fragrant smell that I often reserve making it for a time when we have company! I 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 (you might want to save this until after you’ve made biscuits because that breakfast table will fill up pretty quickly!). We eat a breakfast of biscuits and fresh, hot apple butter while I let the rest continue to cook. This is about as close to heaven as you can possibly get while still drawing breath.
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.
At this point your butter will be dark brown and rich, but 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 use 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. Last time I made it, my company ate almost two pints at dinner. 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!
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 7 2008. Filed under Breads, Breakfast, Crock Pot, Dessert, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Sauces/Other, Southern Classics.
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Now that sounds like I recipe I can get excited about! My entire family loves apple butter but I was spoiled as a youngster by my Aunt Willene’s homemade apple butter. I rarely find a jar apple butter that suits me as “homemade tasting.” This looks so easy that I believe I can even do it! Plus, looks like there’s not much cleanup (I love crock-pot recipes!). Because I truly hate housework and especially washing dishes!
Thanks for the great post! Gonna try this VERY soon!
@Decotta at HouseworkHatersClub.com
ooh! Apple butter! I discovered this just a few years ago and have been addicted since! Now, unfortunately, I don’t have a crock pot so I’ll probably be stuck doing this over a weekend where I can be at the kitchen all day. But so worth it!
Sheila, You can do it in your oven in a covered roasting pan or on top of the stove and just give it a stir once in awhile so it doesn’t scorch.
[...] headline » Crock Pot Apple Butter Mon, 07/7/08 – 3:08 PM | 58 Comments [...]
On man, we were at the Apple Barn just last week and sampled their fritters and apple butter…some of the BEST apple Butter I have ever tasted. I liked their jelly consistency of it and the chunkiness too.
Now off to find apples here in the piney woods of nowhere.
sharon in alabama
My sister-in-law has made the crockpot butter for several years and it is wonderful. Do you have an amount that your recipe makes So jars can be ready? How long should jars be processed? I bought some homemade apple butter once that had red hot candies added to it The heat and cinnamon was a great addition.
Made this Saturday – delicious! Thank you, Christy.
[...] Crock Pot Apple Butter, courtesy of Southern Plate [...]
I woke up this morning to an amazing batch of Apple Butter. Thank You for sharing this receipe. I added just a bit of Ginger to mine however, it gave it a little bite and zing. My Husband does not get really excited over such things, but when I told him I was making this yesterday, and when we woke up to turn off the crock pot, He was “excited” Now I will be making homemade bread today to put this on.
My crockpot is on! I am sure this is going to be wonderful as I have recently done several of your recipes and they have all been GREAT!!!
I started the Crockpot last night and woke up several times to the most heavenly scent! Makes my stomach growl…I’ve not had apple butter in a couple of years and refuse to buy it in the stores!
My one issue is that it’s still too “soupy” after cooking 10 hours covered last night and almost 5 more hours today uncovered. Should I just let it keep going for a few more hours? I think that’s what’s going to happen.
I realize that you probably won’t get to this soon, but I thought I’d ask anyway!
I love your website and have pointed several people to it in the last few weeks!
Thanks! Stacey
Hey Stacey!
Thanks for reading and commenting! A great deal of your apple butter consistency depends on the juiciness of your apples but it’s not really supposed to be super thick when done. Also, it will thicken a lot when it cools.
I’d cook it another hour or so and be sure to scrape down the sides when you stir, lots of the “thick stuff” hides there.:)
hope this helps but I betcha have perfect apple butter right now and didn’t even know it!
Gratefully
Christy
Can you freeze this in small containers? Thanks for the recipe, I now have 8 containers sitting on my kitchen counter. I don’t can, so….. Appreciate it.
[...] Crock Pot Apple Butter [...]
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I LOVE apple butter! I can NOT wait to try this! Apple butter has ALWAYS been a staple at our fish fry’s! We just throw some canned biscuits in the fryer after we have fried our fish and potatoes… NOTHING BETTER than apple butter on deep fried canned biscuits!
Oh MY!!!! Deep fried canned biscuits?!?!?!?!! Sounds like a little bit of heaven! lol Actually, Christy also has a recipe about making donuts from canned biscuits … pretty much the same thing, I suppose!
Ok… I made a double recipe of this and gave it out to all my teacher co-workers for Christmas. If you do this, be prepared to be BOMBARDED with empty jars and demands for MORE.. NOW! lol
This stuff is the best of the best of home cooking… warm, cozy, delicious, and SUPER easy! I would even say that it is IMPOSSIBLE to screw up.
Thanks, Christy, for giving me just one more reason to release my stress in my kitchen.
[...] Another favorite biscuit recipe that I use is Becky’s. These are great and are wonderful with homemade apple butter. [...]
Saw this recipe and had to make it! It’s in the crockpot and 8 hours will never go by slower….can’t wait to try it!
[...] and ready to be filled! Make sure the liquid you are filling them with is hot. I made this apple butter in my crock pot so its sitting happily on my counter keeping warm! Pour scalding water (from your [...]
[...] these with Crock Pot Apple Butter, Super Easy Peach Preserves, or Chocolate Gravy! (you can make Chocolate Gravy with Splenda, [...]
I just put all of my ingredients in the crock pot to make this! My crock pot is only 4 quarts so I had to kind of wing it. I ended up with a 3 pound jar of unsweetened applesauce, 2.25 pounds of apples (2 Fujis, 1 Red Delicious and 1 Gala), 3/4 cup apple cider, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and half a teaspoon each of cloves and allspice. I’m hoping that adding the apple cider wasn’t a mistake since I essentially am making half the recipe but with extra apples, which will be juicy. I guess we’ll find out! In any case, of course I had to taste everything once it was mixed up and it’s already incredibly tasty. Love the cinnamon, allspice and cloves together!
I’ll surely comment again once my apple butter is finished (and canned! It’ll be my first time!) later on
I’ve only ever had jarred apple butter from the grocery store so I know this is going to be good.
My apple butter is now made and canned! Woohoo! It’s so good- Like I said above, I made sorta half a batch plus a bit. I added another half cup of sugar this morning, but I don’t think it needed it. We love sweet things though, so it’s no problem! My fiance doesn’t like applesauce (weirdo), but he likes the apple butter. I made biscuits to go with it. (I just heard a jar seal!) My apple butter ended up cooking for a solid 20 1/2 hours- 12 on low covered, 8 high and uncovered. We ended up with only 4 half pints, plus whatever we ate during the day! It’s so good…
I’m a little concerned about how my canning went. Can you reassure me that we aren’t going to die from food poisoning? Turns out my big pot isn’t that tall, so I had to lay the jars on their sides when sterilizing and processing. They were covered by an inch of water, but I think my dish towel had a little bit of laundry detergent left on it or something because there was a good amount of bubbles and water overflowing. Jars ended up only being covered by half an inch or so. I processed them for 13 minutes instead of 5 though… Do you think it will be okay? I’ll definitely get a bigger pot for next time!
If it were me, I’d feel completely confident in how that was canned, you done good!!!!
I’m so excited that you made it!!
Thanks for replying, Christy. Yay, we won’t die!
I went and put them in the fridge last night, just in case, so if I did do a questionable job, at least the cold will stave off the baddies for a while. I doubt the apple butter will last more than a month or two anyway. I learned to can using the open kettle method when I lived with a family in Austria. We only canned things like jams and tomato juice. I even canned my own tomato juice open kettle style a few times before I knew that I was just asking for food poisoning. We survived just fine, so I think my most-likely-canned-okay apple butter will be okay. I found a great website that has dozens and dozens of canning recipes (I mean, there are like 30 jelly recipes alone), all with step by step instructions, so now I’m all excited to make my own jelly after I acquire a great big pot! I love the strawberry freezer jam that I made a month ago (thanks to your peach freezer jam tutorial), but would like some jelly too. Never going to buy jelly or jam again!
[...] instead. When I first served hoe cake to my in laws, hot from the oven with generous helpings of homemade apple butter, they declared it a hit. They loved the crispy outer layer and soft as clouds biscuit inside. But [...]
Christy, could you freeze this in plastic freezer containers ? My husband loves Apple butter. Maybe I should try this.
You sure could! No problem at all!
Gratefully,
Christy
Hi Christy,
I’m a fan of your site and have made a bunch of your recipes. They are all fantastic! I’d like to the Apple Butter. Is there a reason you use Granny Smith apples or does it matter? My favorite apple is the Gala. I’m wondering if they would make a good apple butter or if you need the tartness of the Granny Smith? What do you think?
Thanks!
Karen
Can I substitute SPLENDA for sugar? Exact amount?
I haven’t personally tried it when Splenda but you should be able to with no problem. I’d use just a hair less, as in remove a tablespoon or two from each cup.
There is also a new sweetener that I’ve fallen in love with called Ideal, that would be “ideal” in this! lol You can even bake with it!
Christy-
Approximately how many apples would be equal to 3 lbs?
This sounds wonderful, I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks
Hey Denise! I’m not sure, it really depends on the size of the apple. I’d say 7-8 medium ones would be three pounds, about, and there is no need to worry over it being exact. Sometimes I leave the apples out entirely and just use an additional jar of applesauce!
Hope you enjoy it!
Gratefully,
Christy
Does it matter what kind of apples? Would Gala apples work?
Gala would work just fine. No worries!
[...] glad to find the recipe at Southern Plate. While you’re at it, you might want to make some crock pot apple butter to go along with it. [...]
My husband loves the Jordan rolls I think this would be great on them we are gonna give it a try. Thanks again
Done with the crock pot peach butter and they all sealed. Now if it will just set. Tastes great though. THanks for the recipe…
Another version of this may require a little more cooking, but fewer ingredients. My mom’s recipe calls for you to cook your sliced up apples on the stove (with a little water to keep them from sticking) until they’re the consistency of chunky applesauce. ( I had my Dutch oven about 2/3 full before cooking them.) Then you put it in your slow cooker and add sugar and cinnamon. For every cup of cooked apples you put in, add 1/2 cup of sugar (more or less to taste). I had 7 1/2 cups of cooked apples and used 3 3/4 cups of sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. The directions are basically the same at that point. Put it on low and cook for 8 to 10 hours. Remove the lid for the last 30 to 60 minutes of cooking. AWESOME with fresh buttermilk biscuits!
[...] Crock Pot Apple Butter: 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 shied 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 brought you so far! (also has canning instructions) From Southern Plate. [...]
Hurray! I just made and canned 10 pints of apple butter and my 99 year old mother in law dubbed it as yummy, just like she used to help her mother make. My apples must have been too thick because they didn’t “melt” after 10 hours so… no problem. I just put them into the blender, then back in the crockpot and let it cook uncovered a little longer. My mother in law gave me a hint for a different taste which I am going to try on the next batch (whenever that will be). She said instead of using apple juice, use grape juice while everything else remains the same. She said its even better than this although I don’t know how. My husband has 7 siblings and while we don’t normally exchange gifts at Christmas, this year they are getting apple butter and homebaked bread. (we are all going to get fat)
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