Homemade Apple Butter

There's an apple orchard in Kent, so Joe and I went and bought a peck of apples. The ones that were recommended for apple butter were Swedish Gourmet because they will cook down all the way into a puree rather than an apple-sauce type of thing. In fact, they ended up cooking down to an apple sauce consistency, so I just pureed it before jarring. I split the process in half and got 4 pint jars both times, so from 1 peck of apples, you should get 8 pints of apple butter. Lucky you!

One of my favorite things about the end of the summer is harvesting and canning. It's something we've been doing in my family for a long time, and I got to take a stab at it solo this year :)



Makes 4 pints
Ingredients:

• 1/2 peck of apples, peeled, cored, cubed
• 2 c brown sugar, unpacked
• 4 sticks cinnamon, broken/crushed
• 2 T allspice, whole
• 1/2 t nutmeg, ground
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 c apple cider vinegar

Directions:
1. I like to create a spice sack so that I can use the whole spices and let it simmer. To do this, just cut out a 4"x4" piece of cheese cloth (I left it doubled up, so it was sturdier). Place your spices (whole and ground) in the center, then tie it up with a string.






2. Once you've peeled, cored and cubed the apples most of the work is over with. You'll just need to put the apples into a stock pot over low heat, add the apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and your spice pack and give it a stir.

3. Cover and let simmer over low heat for 3 hours. Come back occasionally to stir it. At first it will cook down to apple-sauce (I set some aside when it was still apple sauce for my lunch the next day). Keep cooking until hopefully it turns into apple butter. If it doesn't, you can do what I did.

Apple Sauce

Dark in color, very very soft = ready for apple butter.

4. If needed, blend it on a low speed ("puree" setting) for 30 seconds.

It will start out looking pulpy

and end up looking smooth.

5. If you've blended it while the apple butter is still hot, pour it straight into the jars and put the lids on. The cooling process will cause the lids to form the air tight seal that you're looking for. If you waited until it cooled to puree, heat it back up in the stock pot and then pour it off.