After a day of two crock pots teasing me with dinner and apple butter I was rewarded this morning with Apple Butter on my home made bread, and a mock pumpkin spice vanilla latte.
I adapted my recipe because I only had the minimum amount of apples and only had apple juice not cider. Also you will find my recipe for All Spice, and brown sugar below it's so simple, there's no reason to ever buy it.
Did I ever tell you I hate peeling, and coring? It sucks, I rarely do it, I leave most skins on for all the nutrients. But this recipe calls for peeling.. BLAH! I only had 6 apples on hand and thats the below minimum. You really need 8-10, using 6 I should of used a little less apple juice because I had to scoop out my apples and leave some juice in the bottom of my crock.
It's just as easy to dump in your ingredients but I wanted to make sure that I blended the spices with the juice before. I also ran out of brown sugar so I had to make my own too!
After all the peeling, the coring, making all spice, and making brown sugar I poured the mixture over my apples and cinnamon sticks. It really is easy if you're prepared! I am the queen to making a chaotic mess.
Im surprised I actually get food into a crock pot some days.
Apple butter you have to tend to during the day. I was stirring every couple of hours to make sure the cinnamon infused into the apples. It was a divine task. *NOM NOM*
I left my apples in for 8 hours because I used the full amount of juice, and only 6 apples. I wanted the extra juice to hopefully boil down some. When It was time to add to the blender I scooped out the apples and left a juice at the bottom I could tell that it would be too watery if I added it to the blender. I used a a quick 3 second chop because it goes fast! Watch out! Too much and you have apple water. I reused my jam jars from my stash. Six apples made two average sized jam jars. I waited to cool then put into the fridge, it will last a couple of weeks, if not eaten this weekend ;-).
Crock Pot Apple Butter
8-10 apples- peeled, cored, and chopped
3/4 cup of apple juice or cider*
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar**
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice***
3 whole cinnamon sticks
Peel and core your apples, and chop into smaller chunks. Mix your juice or cider, and sugar with the spices. Pour over apples and cinnamon sticks. Leave in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. When reached a nice soft rich consistency pour into bender. Use a pulse setting, it will blend very quick. Blend until smooth. Contain in jars, either reused, or if you like to use elaborate means!
* I only had apple juice, and I love Spiced Apple Butter, So I upped the nutmeg to 1/4 tsp, and everything else heaping!
How to make your own brown sugar:
Some time ago I ran into a Pin about making brown sugar. Super easy, just mix sugar and maple syrup. That simple, but of course I didn't have maple syrup on hand. That's just my luck. So here is a substitute for the substitute. I actually used my Splenda baking mix, you don't have to, but I did it with out thinking ( I do a lot of that). The consistency still came out the same, but this is the Splenda that had sugar mixed in, so I don't know about 'the straight stuff'.
I was a half a cup sort, so I used half cup Slpenda baking mix, Karo Dark Syrup, and Maple Extract. I did not do any measuring because this was on a whim. I just tasted as I went. The cool thing is as I stirred it truly looked like brown sugar. My only tip is dribble the extract as you go. I could pick it up between my fingers and chew on it like the real thing! I don't think I will ever buy brown sugar again. The awesome thing about this is you can really add to the richness and aroma of the apple butter by doing this.
***Make your Own 'All Spice'
Equal parts of:
cinnamon
cloves
nutmeg
cloves
nutmeg
If you want less cloves and nutmeg just use half of what you used of cinnamon. I know mind blowing.
I am really thinking that this Apple Butter had a gift-giving quality. Paired with a home made loaf it's "aces baby!" Yeah, I will get you my so-addictive-bread-it's-crack-recipe next. My list of stuff to share is just growing, and I am to the point that I forget what picture is for what recipe. I really need to upload and name the file or picture. There's a new idea!
"Organize my files! Say what, that can't be done!"
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