The first secret to making great apple butter, is to us fresh apples. The second secret is that the apples cook for up to 48 hours in a crockpot. It might sound involved, but really it's only about five minutes of work 3 or 4 times. Apple butter is so simple to make!

Ingredients

25-30 apples (I prefer Fuji or Jonagold)
2-4 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp allspice
1/2-1 tsp ground cloves
2-4 cups sugar

Instructions

Core and slice apples, dumping the slices into the crockpot as you go. Stop prepping apples when the crockpot is full (just save the remaining apples for later).

Add 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp cloves and 2 cups of sugar. Mix well and put the crock pot on low for 10 hours. Feel free to stir when you walk by!

After 10 hours, core and slice more apples to fill the crockpot. Dump the new apple slices into what’s already cooked down. Mix well. Cook another 10 hours on low.

Repeat the process of adding more apples, mix, set the crockpot for another 10 hours.

Taste test your apple butter and add more cinnamon, allspice, cloves and sugar to your taste. I usually add the same amount I did the first time, although sometimes I only add one more cup of sugar, depends on how sweet the apples are.

After it’s gone a good 30-40 hours, use an immersion blender to puree it. (You could probably put through food mill or blender too). Continue cooking until it’s the thickness that you want. If it’s not cooking down enough vent the lid a little. If it gets too thick, add some water or apple juice.

When it’s the consistency you want, can it using a *waterbath method, or simply put in clean jars and refrigerate up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze it if you want to keep it for longer without doing the waterbath method.

Other Info

*You can do a google search for waterbath canning to get lots of tips.