Amish Crock Pot Apple Butter
Apple butter takes me right back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania Amish country where I first sampled this thick, spice infused goodness. The laundry, hung out to dry, flapping in the wind next to rows and rows of corn filled my window that morning. A black buggy driven by a stately man dressed in all black with the Amish style beard waved as he rode by. I couldn’t help but feel that I had stepped back into time, and I pretended that I was Amish — for like 5 minutes. For those 5 minutes, I really thought I’d try to fall in love with an Amish man and join this simpler, peaceful way of life. Anyway, now you know that I am completely fascinated by the Amish, and if I had to join any group, it would probably be them…. because they make amazing apple butter…like this one. I just changed it a bit for the good ol’ crock pot!
The one thing I don’t like about traditional apple butter recipes, is that you have to use your hard-earned homemade applesauce to make it, and it cooks down to nothing. THIS recipe is made from the apples directly, so there isn’t that extra step of turning it into applesauce before cooking.
STEP 1: Peel, core, and slice the apples.
STEP 2: Place the apples in the crock pot and mix in seasonings and sugar. Cover and cook for 8-10 hours.
STEP 3: The apples should have turned in to apple butter by the end of the cooking time. I like mine smooth, so I puree the mixture with an immersion blender.
STEP 4: Adjust any seasonings or the sweetness and ladle into jars.
STEP 5: I like to can my jars in a water bath, but they can also be frozen at this point and kept in the freezer if you don’t want to can.
STEP 6: Enjoy!
AMISH CROCK POT APPLE BUTTER
6 lbs. mixed variety apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 3/4 cups apple cider
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Place all ingredients in the crock pot and mix well. Cook on the high setting for 2 hours, stirring periodically. Turn the crock to low and cook 7-8 more hours. Puree with an immersion blender if desired for a smoother consistency.
Fruit Leather Fun: Make your own
Homemade fruit leather is easy to make. Puree fruit and dry it! That’s it!! I love being able to use our over ripened fruit for this so that we don’t have to throw it away. The texture, nutritional value, and ease of the homemade leathers makes it well worth the time.
Step 1: Select your fruit and wash it thoroughly.
Step 2: Peel, if you want. I like to keep the skins on for fiber and nutritional value. Chop into pieces.
Step 3: Put fruit pieces in a blender and puree until smooth. Add a little lemon juice and sugar (if desired). You may gently cook the mixture in a saucepan to dissolve the sugar.
Step 4: Pour the puree THINLY onto a fruit dryer rack or onto a rimmed baking sheet that has Silpat silicone sheets underneath. You may also put plastic wrap underneath if you don’t have silicone sheets.
Step 5: I use the Excalibur Food Dehydrator. Here is a picture of it. It is a workhorse for drying everything from apples to beef jerky. I love mine and use it all of the time, but if you can’t buy one, no worries. Put the fruit leather into an oven at 140 degrees and bake until it is completely dried. If you are using a dehydrator, follow the directions for your particular dryer.
APPLE DAY!!
Apple Day has been a long standing tradition in our house. This picture makes me want to cry because it is from a couple of years ago, and I just cannot stand how fast they are growing up! It makes me realize how special this day is in creating all of the warm feelings of fall — the smell of apples cooking, a pumpkin spice candle burning, Vivaldi playing in the background (my favorite canning music for some reason), happy noises coming from the kids working together, and the familiar “pop” of canning lids sealing. It truly is a day that makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. It’s all that good in life!
Apple Day begins here:
We are fortunate enough to live close to one of the most beautiful orchard areas in the Northwest: Greenbluff. Hansen’s Orchard is owned by family friends, and we think they have the absolute BEST apples & cider on the Bluff!
We try to time it so that we process the apples in the same week they are picked. I learned this the hard way some years back. The apples are much harder to work with after they have softened up even a little bit.
Here’s why. This fantastic gadget peels, cores, and slices the apples. If they are hard, it is a snap. If they are soft…. it turns to a mushy, mashy mess.
We make chunky applesauce.
Dried Apples.
And the very favorite: APPLESAUCE
OK — this is a close favorite runner-up: APPLE CRISP.
I couldn’t resist putting in this picture from Apple Day last year. So much love going around — warms a mama’s heart it does!!
Ohhhh ya — this one too: APPLE PIES
It’s a lot, I know, and make no mistake — we are exhausted by the end of the day, but it’s that good kind of exhausted. The kind that lets the heart and body know that it has been a day well spent. Those are the best kind!
Freeze Fruit, then Can it or Jam it….Later
We love buying or picking in-season fruit, then jamming (our term for making jam) or canning. The problem is, sometimes we pick or buy, but don’t have the time to process it. Here is our solution: the freezer. Freeze the fruit in a box or on a tray. After it is solid, transfer to a ziplock bag, label, and pull out when there is time!
I also love this because most of the canning season is in the summer, when it is hot and when I don’t want to be in the kitchen all day. Come fall, I am ready and excited. I grab my bags and off I go. Obviously this doesn’t work with all fruit, but it can work with most, especially if it is jam or fruit butters that you are making.
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