Fall is officially apple season, and I am lucky enough to have generous friends with an apple tree in their backyard. They invited my youngest and I over to pick any apples we wanted, and we came home with a full bag of apples just perfect for making apple butter.
I absolutely love apple butter on toast or english muffins. Its sweet cinnamon goodness is the perfect taste of fall. The recipe mentions storing the apple butter by freezing. I have always canned mine (using the hot water bath method for 10 minutes with a 1/4" of headspace). It will produce around 3 pints of apple butter, so you will have more than enough to eat some right away, share some, and store some for later!
I found the recipe I used on the internet, and I chose it because it had the phrase "no peeling!" right in the title. I've made it four times, and I can testify that they are right. You do not need to peel the apples, thanks to the utilization of both a slow cooker and a blender.
The recipe is from Sugar Spun Run's website and can be found in it's entirety by clicking here.
I have provided a pared down version here as well:
The Best Apple Butter Recipe (No Peeling!)
5.5 lbs apples, cored and chopped into 1/4" pieces
1c brown sugar
3/4c granulated sugar
1T cinnamon
1/4t salt
1/8t cloves
1 1/2t vanilla extract
Place apples in the basin of large slow cooker
Stir together sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cloves
Pour sugar mixture over apple pieces until well combined
Place lid on crockpot and cook on low heat for 10 hrs
After 10 hours, blend contents until smooth (using either an immersion blender or transfer contents to traditional blender. If doing the latter, return blended mixture to crockpot when finished.)
Add vanilla to apple mixture
Turn crockpot to low heat and cook another 2 hours uncovered, stirring occasionally.