Preserving
Slow Cooker Spiced Apple Butter
Makes about 4 cups · 10 min prep + 9 hrs slow cook
When the orchard apples pile up in October, this is where the soft ones go. The slow cooker does all the work overnight, cooking the fruit down into a dark, spoonable spread with no added pectin — just apples, a little sugar, and warm fall spice. Keep it in the fridge for a few weeks or freeze it in jars; see the Canning section if you want it shelf-stable.
Ingredients
- 5 lbs apples (a mix of sweet and tart), peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the chopped apples to a 6-quart slow cooker. Stir in both sugars, the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt, and lemon juice.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, stirring once or twice, until the apples are completely soft and deeply golden.
- Uncover and puree smooth with an immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender).
- Cook uncovered on LOW another 1 to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the butter is thick, dark, and mounds on a spoon.
- Stir in the vanilla. Cool, then ladle into clean jars.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year, leaving headspace in freezer jars.