Apple butter. Sweet, thick, and delicious. It’s one of my favorite spreads, but the commercial brands are loaded with sugar, MSG and preservatives, so most of the time I just skip it. A few weeks ago, I decided I really wanted apple butter so I looked for easy ways to make it at home. The recipe couldn’t contain any sugar, had to be completely natural, and had to be as low in oxalates as possible. I also didn’t want to spend hours in the kitchen babysitting apples while they cooked.
Here’s what I came up with :
This recipe makes about 1 1/2 quarts.
Ingredients:
6 pounds apples
1 stick butter or an equivalent amount of coconut oil
about 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
about 1 teaspoon salt
Equipment needed:
Crock pot or electric roaster
Hand blender
Directions:
- Place butter in the crock pot. Turn crock pot on to LOW setting
- Quarter apples and remove seeds. There is no need to peel the apples.
- Add apples to crock pot, and cover. Leave room between the lid and the crock so steam can escape. You can do this by putting wooden skewers or chopsticks on the crock and resting the lid on top. I simply cover the crock pot with foil and turn foil back 1-2 inches on one end.
- Let the apples cook until are soft enough to mash easily with a fork
- Turn the crock pot off. Use your hand blender to blend the apples smooth.
- Add lemon juice and cinnamon to taste.
- Recover apples leaving enough room for steam to escape, like you did before.
- Turn the crock pot on to LOW.
- Let apples cook for another 8-12 hours.
- Can or store in your usual manner.
