Today reallllly felt like autumn. It started out rainy and windy and downright chilly. Then it dried up. The winds and the nip remained, and the rainbow of leaves contrasted against the bright blue of the sky. It was just perfect.
I wanted to make something inside the house that would be warm and comforting. And I wanted to use apples. Because I have lots and lots and lots of apples.
I found this recipe for apple butter on The Busy Baker blog. It appealed to me because it called for leaving on the apple skin which means...less work for me.
But there was a trade-off in leaving on the skins. I had to make sure the skins were clean. Which meant thoroughly cleaning the sink, then soaking the apples, then scrubbing the skins, then rinsing the apples, then drying the apples. THEN I was able to get started.
Thankfully the recipe was easier than pie.
Well, it was until the aforementioned winds blew out a transformer and knocked out our electricity. Ahhh! Then it was a bit more complicated. But only because I had to wait. Once the power was restored, I was able to quickly finish the recipe.
The original recipe calls for only apples and 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. But I added some ground cloves, a small amount of honey, and a small amount of brown sugar.
Slow-Cooker Apple Butter
Ingredients:
enough apples to fill your slow cooker (skins on, cored, and cut into wedges. I used my 3-quart slow cooker and 10 medium apples filled it)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon honey
Directions:
1. Core apples.
2. Fill slow cooker with apples. Cook on High heat for about 4 hours, stirring every hour or so.
At the end of the time, the apples will look sort of like this:
3. Place the apple mush into a blender or food processor. Let it spin until it's broken down.
4. Put the mix back into the slow cooker, stir in the spices and sweeteners, and put it back on High for another hour.
5. Let the completed mixture sit in the slow cooker to cool a bit before pouring it into a jar and refrigerating it.
You can enjoy apple butter on your toast/muffins/waffles or even mixed in with, say, cottage cheese. (That's the ONLY way I can stomach cottage cheese and its curds...ugh.)
Tastes like autumn.
This sounds amazing and I bet it made the house smell warm and inviting too :)
ReplyDeleteIt really did. And, seriously, the apple cookies with this apple butter in them (instead of apple sauce)? SOOOOO good.
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