Apple Butter

This weekend we went out to Hood River and picked apples.  It was a lot of fun and we ended up with dozens of apples for only $11.  I decided we should make apple butter, which is one of the tastiest substances on earth. Here are the two apple butter recipes I made this weekend, though I started with just one big batch of 4 or five pounds of apples for the applesauce base for both recipes.  I canned my apple butter, and the whole process is shown on my Flickr page, here.  (Hint- click the Show Info button at the top right of the screen for step by step instructions.)

Homemade Apple Sauce
Noun-
Apples

Verbs-

Core the apples and cut the into slices. (*Note- if you do not have a food mill, you have to peel them, too.)  Put all the apple slices in a pot with just enough water to cover the bottom and cook on meduim low until the apples are soft, about 30 minutes.  Run the apples through a food mill if you have one, a food processor if you don't.  If you have neither, then hand mash with potato masher.  At this stage, if all you want is delicious sugar-free homemade applesauce, you can stop.  Or, you can add some sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest or whatever you like.

Caramel Apple Butter-
Nouns-
4 cups apple sauce
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups caramels
1 tsp cinnamon

Verbs-
Pour the applesauce into your crockpot, add the sugar and cinnamon and cook on low for 8 hours.  Then, if desired, puree with immersion blender to make it smoother.  Unwrap the caramels and microwave them until bubbly.  Stir them into the apple butter.  Yummm!



Spiced Apple Butter
Nouns-
4 cups applesauce
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 inch fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup apple juice

Verbs-
Add the spices, half the sugar and the apple juice to a heavy-bottomed pot and cook on high for five minutes.  Pour the mixture into the crockpot and add the applesauce and remaining sugar.  Cook on low 8 hours.  Add more sugar to taste.  Yumm!