Slow-Cooker
Apple Butter
Purists will tell you that the only way to properly make apple butter is over an open fire, in an enormous copper pot, on a cold autumn day, stirring continuously with a wooden paddle from sunrise until well after sunset — all of which must occur as near as possible to the trees from whence your apples came.
The truth of the matter is this: They’re absolutely right. That is exactly what you should do. And we hope that you will, and please send us some when you do.
But for those years when things don’t go entirely as planned on your “Autumn List”; for those passages in life when (to the wonderment of no one) you realize that you have somehow overbooked and do not perhaps have time to pull out your enormous copper pot and devote an entire day to stirring its contents — in these moments, there need be neither guilt nor disappointment: reasonable alternative accommodations can be made.
Avoid therefore any temptation to give up and just grab a jar of apple butter at the grocery store in hopes of instantly making things “feel more like fall.” A worthy middle path exists. Any garden-variety slow cooker on your countertop can serve as an adequate stand-in for fire, copper, paddle, and orchard vista. You’ll still be involved in some (highly enjoyable, kid-friendly, autumn-inducing) work at the beginning and the end, but it’s surprisingly simple, and the process offers a respite of twelve hours of set-it-and-forget-it in between. During which you can tend to all those other non-apple-butter things you had to get done today.
This approach, if not perfectly proper, is at least almost proper, and the results are almost as good.
Slow-Cooker
Apple Butter
Equipment:
Slow cooker
Coring and peeling tools (A table-top rotating apple peeler/corer is particularly handy.)
3 one-pint (or 6 half-pint) mason jars with lids
Ingredients:
6-7 pounds apples, cored, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups apple cider + 4 cups of water (or 6 cups of water, if someone drank all the cider while you were briefly out of the kitchen)
1 1/2 cups sugar (pure, raw cane sugar is what we used)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Put the apple pieces, cider (if using), water, sugar and spices in to a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat for 30-40 minutes. Stir occasionally until the apples are broken down. Transfer, in batches, to a food processor or blender and blend until quite smooth. Transfer the apple puree to the slow cooker. Adjust sugar and seasonings to taste.
Set the slow cooker on low for 10-12 hours with the lid slightly askew so as to allow steam to escape. This helps the butter become more smooth and concentrated. If you prefer your apple butter extremely smooth, place an immersion blender in the puree and blend, blend, blend until it is (extremely) smooth or — more laboriously — pass the initial puree through a fine mesh sieve before placing in cooker.
If you want at least a hint of the classic experience, feel free to stir it once in a while, but don’t stress about it. The apple butter is done when dark, smooth, and, yes, buttery. Check it every so often toward the end; timing may vary based on different slow-cooker models.
Put the apple butter into clean jars with lids, cool on the countertop, and refrigerate. The jars will keep for about a month in the fridge (or until any neighbors with a house key find out about them).
If canning for the winter, or the year, follow the standard procedures for water bath canning — after which, the jars can be stored for a year in the pantry or cellar.
