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It can be challenging to work with packed jars when you are canning. Jar lifters are a set of scissor-like tongs that you can use to grasp your jars and move them around. The jar lifters will make it easier to place and remove packed jars from your boiling water canner. While applesauce is typically made over the stove (since it doesn’t take long), apple butter can be made easily in a slow cooker. Just dump your apples in the base of your slow cooker then pour your sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt over the top. Give this a quick stir and cook on your slow cooker’s high setting for an hour.
Core and quarter tart cooking apples (don't forget to wash them first). Add the apples to an 8- to 10-quart heavy pot ($75, Walmart) with apple cider or apple juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Try this homemade apple butter recipe this fall. Made with apple cider, tart apples, and cinnamon, canning apple butter has never been so tasty.
Coring, Peeling and Quartering the Apples
You’ll pack all of your apple butter into these jars, preserve them in your boiling water canner, and then store the fruit butter in the jars for up to a year. Sure, you can eat them to your heart’s content, or dehydrate them, or press a few bushels into cider. But how about making some apple butter?
Half pints are processed the same as pints. You can make fruit butter in quart jars, but I’d suggest you think about it first. A quart of any fruit butter will last a very, very long time. I do not include processing time for quarts. I did one of my Canning Chats on canning apple butter in quarts here.
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It is important to remove any dead space, or air pockets, that may form in the jars as you are packing them. Once you have finished with your initial packing of the jars, use your canning spatula to pack down the apple butter tighter, removing any air pockets. It may be necessary to ladle in more apple butter after you’ve removed the air pockets to get the jar back to ¼ inch of headspace. For this recipe, you’ll have to peel over six pounds of apples. You can use a standard potato peeler, but it is tedious, and takes a long time.
Fruit butters are often lost in the shuffle when it comes to all the different types of preserves out there. They are creamy spreads made primarily out of fruit; their consistency is similar to that of butter, hence the name. Finally you can eat, can, or freeze the apple butter.
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Simmer, stirring every couple minutes, until sauce thickens and turns dark brown, about 15 minutes. To fill the jars, place a wide-mouth plastic funnel in a hot, clean jar. Ladle apple butter into the hot jar, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove the funnel; wipe off the jar rim with a clean, damp towel. (Any food left on the rim will prevent a perfect seal.) Position the prepared lid and screw band on the jar and tighten according to the manufacturer's directions.
Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Bring this mixture to boiling then reduce the heat. Cook, uncovered, over very low heat, about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours or until the mixture is very thick. The mixture should be the consistency of very thick applesauce.
Then, thread a screw band down on the jar until you meet resistance, and it is “hand tight.” You do not want to tighten the screw bands too much. Repeat this process with all of your jars, until they all have a lid and a screw band. You should get in the habit of labeling everything you can; you should, as a minimum, mark what each jar contains, and when you processed it. This will ensure that you always know what’s in the jars your opening, and that you get rid of any jars that have sat in your pantry for too long. There are additional items you might want to have on hand as well.
After cooking, place your pot of apple butter in a sink filled with ice water; stirring it to cool. Ladle into clean jars or freezer-safe containers ($3, Target), leaving a ½-inch of headspace. Store apple butter in the freezer for up to 6 months.
It tastes delicious spread over biscuits, toast, or on a peanut butter sandwich. Every year for Christmas I would get a jar of homemade apple butter from my grandma. It was the first gift I would open so I could have toast and apple butter for breakfast. She gave me her recipe before she passed away. In order to make your apple butter, you will need to puree your fruit mixture.
After 2 hours I turned it to 200 and let cook all night. Grace is a full-time mom with a Master's degree in Food Science. She loves to experiment in the kitchen and writes about her hits on her blog, A Southern Grace. I would just look at the pictures in the post and that will give you an idea of how thick it will be.
It is most preferable to make use of a canner. It is mainly the water bath canning method for apple butter. When it comes to apple butter canning, water bath canning is the best option. This is because apples are high in acid and will stay fresher for longer with this method. There are a wide variety of flavours you can add to apple butter. Try your hand at our Baked Bourbon-Apple Butter that’s infused with sensational notes of cinnamon, ginger, and bourbon.
Properly sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to one year. Store them in a cool, dry place, like a pantry or basement. Remember, once you open a jar, you cannot re-seal it; any apple butter remaining in an opened jar must be refrigerated and eaten as soon as possible. Once you’re done peeling, coring, quartering and washing your apples, place them all in the large saucepan, and add in the cider as well. It is always a good idea to gently cover your processed canning jars with a large towel for 24 hours, and ensure they seal properly. You will use a ladle to transfer your apple butter from the saucepan to the jars.
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