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Slow Cooker Apple Butter

You’ll want to spread this apple butter over just about everything!

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One homemade treat that we absolutely love to make each year is our own apple butter, and fall is the perfect season to whip up a fresh batch. Some might call it apple butter, others apple jam, but by whatever name you call it, it’s a tasty spread for your morning toast or a scone at weekend brunch. Made with the simplest of ingredients and, of course, our favorite kitchen gadget – the slow cooker – this apple butter recipe will be one you’ll want to share with family and friends because it’s just that good!

Apple butter is a great weekend cooking project. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it recipe so you can go about your weekend chores while the house is filled with the most amazing smell of warm apples cooked in brown sugar and spices. The hardest choice you’ll have to make is which variety of apple to use for your apple butter. Galas, Red Delicious, McIntosh, or Fuji apples will all work well here, the rest of the ingredients are basic pantry staples that will help turn those apples into a flavorful treat. Brown sugar helps to give the apples not only beautiful spiced-molasses flavor. Then we add a pinch or two of ground cloves, ginger, and cinnamon, spices that pair beautifully with the cooked apples and brown sugar. So good!

We puree the cooked apples into a butter-like consistency, smooth and thick, with an immersion or standard blender. Once cooled, our apple butter is ready to enjoy! We like to store ours in an airtight container or in mason jars and refrigerate. The apple butter should last for a couple of weeks, but who are we kidding…it’s not likely to last that long at all! A homemade slow cooker apple butter is such a wonderful recipe for all of those beautiful seasonal apples! A spoonful of apple butter on a slice of toast or a warm scone or muffin is a tasty way to eat our way through the crisp Fall weather.

Yield(s): Serves 20

12 hours

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Ingredients
  • 6 pounds apples (Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji) cored and diced
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
  1. Place diced apples into the slow cooker.
  2. Top with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt, and vanilla extract. Toss to evenly coat the apples with the sugar and spices.
  3. Cook on Low for 10 hours, stirring approximately every 2 hours. The apple butter is ready when the mixture has thickened and turned a deep shade of brown.
  4. Use an immersion blender or a blender (working in small batches) to puree the apples into a butter-like consistency.
  5. Continue to cook for another 1-2 hours on LOW. Cool before transferring to an air-tight container or clean mason jar for storage.
  6. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Freeze if planning to store for a longer period of time.

Recipe adapted from Tastes of Lizzy T.