Making Apple Butter, Attempt #1

So tonight I decided to make apple butter. My contribution to our huge joint family Thanksgiving is the biscuits I made last week (smaller and lots more) and figured I’d give apple butter a try to serve with them.

I’d found a recipe last week that looked pretty simple. Last night I bought all the ingredients that we didn’t have and after hubby left for work tonight, I started chopping up the apples.

Ingredients
4 pounds of Granny Smith (or other sweet/tart) apples peeled and cored
1/3 cup fresh pressed apple juice (not from concentrate)
2/3 cup maple syrup (or use dark brown sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and/or cloves to taste

I tossed everything into a big pot like the recipe said. First the apples, then the juices, then the sugar and spices go in last. I covered the pot and kicked the stove to medium high (6-7 on my stove) and let it boil.

Oh, my modifications are:

  • 4lb mini Granny Smith apples (I didn’t take the coring into account so it ended up being less)
  • Martinelli apple juice instead of fresh pressed
  • I only used Ginger and Cinnamon as I didn’t have other spices

After boiling, I stirred everything to ensure the mixture coated all the apples, then turned the stove down to 2-3 and simmered for 30 minutes.

After making sure they were soft enough (OK, so I used a potato masher to test this), I scooped about a cup at a time into my mini food processor to puree the heck outta the apples. There’s still some chunks. I fail at this sometimes. Also, had I used the immersion blender from my wedding registry, it probably would’ve turned out a lot smoother.

It was still pretty wet, like apple sauce, so  I dumped everything back into the pot and simmered it for 15 minutes at a time to “dry it out” as suggested by my twitter friend Susan. It took well over 2 hours to get the right consistency, and burned the whole entire bottom of the pot. Le sigh. Maybe I’m not meant to make apple butter.

I’m going to test it again in the morning. Right now it’s cooling and then going into the fridge. Fingers crossed!

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4 comments on “Making Apple Butter, Attempt #1

  1. Becca

    Yep and I know for next time to not do that. But it was still delicious!

  2. K Jeffers

    Second attempt at applebutter here. First time I mainly peeled the apples for my sister. This time, my daughter (13) and I did all the work. worked out pretty good, we think! We simply peeled the apples, boiled them till soft, then put in food processor with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and a little all-spice (to suit taste). I love honey, so put a little of that in each batch as well. Mixed well, then put in prepared jars and water bath to seal. Now let’s see if I can do this apple jelly my sister told me about…..

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