What is apple butter?
Apple butter is a super concentrated form of apple sauce that’s usually cooked very slowly to allow the sugar from the apples to caramelize.
There’s no butter in it! You use it the same way you use jam.
The muffins you see in the pictures are these vegan pumpkin muffins. It’s also great used in these apple butter donuts!
Where does apple butter come from?
When the first monasteries with large apple orchards appeared in the middle ages, apple butter was born as a way to conserve part of the fruit production. It originated in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany and made its way to colonial America via the settlers.
How do you make apple butter?
Making apple butter is really super simple.
When I first looked at apple butter recipes, I found recipes that took 8 hours of cooking… even 15 hours. But I wanted apple butter NOW! 😀
So with this recipe, you core and then cut the apples (an apple slicer makes this a breeze). Then you put them in a large pot, together with spices and a little apple and lemon juice, and let it go for 1 1/2 hours.
You do have to stir it occasionally but I’d rather do that than let it go for 15 hours. Then you puree it.
When I was looking for recipes, I also found that people usually use a load of sugar in apple butter. 1 cup of granulated sugar, or even more, per pound of apples. Why?!
It could be that apple butter is supposed to be more like a dessert–item and I’ve just never had “proper” apple butter but I was super happy with this version.
Back when I had a crockpot, I made apple butter in it and I think that the version below tastes just the same. The color came out darker with a crockpot, but taste and