This spiced apple butter is made in a slow cooker, which means that it is almost entirely hands off. I like to make this in the autumn and squirrel it away for holiday gift bags.
Since I was very young, I’ve been something of a collector. I figured that if having one of something was good, then having three or four was even better. As a kid, this meant that I had more pens and pencils in my school bag than necessary and felt most comfortable when I had a back-up security blanket.
In my adulthood, this propensity towards duplication has most actively manifested itself in the kitchen. I have at least two dozen wooden spoons and spatulas (when just a handful would really do), three vintage waffle irons (because you never know when one might break) and five slow cookers.
There’s no really good defense for the wooden implements or the waffle irons, but I do have a rationale for the slow cookers. My slow cooker needs often vary and so having different shapes, sizes and eras to choose from give me options.
Dips go in the mini-cooker. When I make overnight oatmeal, the 2 1/2 quart pot is best. If I’m doing a batch of blueberry butter and want really low, slow heat, nothing works better than my vintage, 4 quart, harvest gold cooker. I also have kept a basic 6 quart cooker in the rotation for a while for stocks and soups, though I must confess, it has never been my favorite.
Then there’s slow cooker number five. It joined the line-up recently and rocketed to the top of my slow cooker hit parade. It’s the Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget model, with a lid that can be locked into a place and a thermometer probe that you can use to test internal temperatures without lifting the lid and releasing the heat. It allows you to set the cook time and temperature (when the time is up, it shifts to a keep warm setting).
This time of year, my slow cookers are in regular rotation for the production of apple and pear butters. I typically go with my vintage cooker, because I know that I can trust it not to burn (older slow cookers have lower set temperatures than the newer models). However, because of its capacity, it ends up yielding just a couple of pints. As you know, most of the time I like a small batch just a little more than the next girl. During the holiday season that changes and I appreciate the option of larger yields for gift giving.
I realize now that I’ve avoided the newer cookers and their higher temperatures because I’ve never worked with one that had an auto shut-off before. I tend to let my fruit butters cook overnight. That was too much time for my brute force, either-on-or-off cooker. But having the option to set it to cook for 5 or 6 hours and then shift to warm has changed everything. I know this technology has been around for a while (my mom had a slow cooker when I was little that did something along these lines), but I’d never before experienced it. I am in love.
My fruit butter yields are higher because the new Hamilton Beach machine has a larger capacity and I’m not running the risk of burning the butter because it shuts off when I ask. I am a happy canner.
Before we get to the apple butter recipe I’ve made three times in the last month in machine, I have to tell you one more reason why I really like it. It’s that “Stay or Go” feature. This slow cooker has a lid fitted with a silicone seal that can be locked into place. That makes it an able traveler, which is terrific for a regular potluck-attender like me.
I used it to transport and serve mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving (sadly, they were the worst mashed potatoes I’ve ever made; both lumpy and gummy at the same time. But the quality of the potatoes wasn’t the cooker’s fault) and it will be pressed into travel service again soon.
The formal recipe I’ve been using for this slow cooker apple butter is down below, but here’s the narrative version. You begin by filling your slow cooker to the top with sliced apples (I got about eight pounds into my cooker, but there’s some natural variation here). You add a little water (maybe 1/2 a cup) to help things along and then you let the cooker for for four to six hours on low, until you can mash the apples into sauce.
Then you puree the heck out of the applesauce, until the skins disappear. It works best in my Vitamix, but I’ve also achieved this same effect with an immersion blender and persistence. Then you return the puree to the slow cooker (it will only fill it 2/3 of the way up at this point) and cook on low for another six or so hours with the lid slightly askew for venting purposes, until the sauce has reduced into butter. Stir in sugar, spices, and lemon zest/juice for balance. That’s it! Making spiced apple butter is so easy and makes such good holiday presents!
Spiced Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 7-8 pounds apples any varieties you like
- 1/2 to 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
Instructions
- Slice apples and heap them into a six quart slow cooker.
- Add 1/2 cup water and set to low.
- Cook until apples are tender and can be easily pressed into sauce. On low, this will take 4-6 hours. On high, it should only take 2-3 hours.
- Puree softened apples into a smooth puree (it shouldn’t be necessary to peel).
- Return to puree to slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours with the lid set slightly ajar so that it can vent.
- Add 1/2 cup sugar, spices and lemon zest/juice. Taste and add more spices and sugar, if necessary.
- Funnel hot apple butter into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.
- When the time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Let the jars rest in the cooling water for 5 minutes. When that time has elapsed, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortably handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
I have only barely started experimenting with a slow-cooker, but the more I read the more I think there is some real potential here — I like the automatic shut-off feature of this one, makes me more comfortable leaving something cooking all day while I’m at work. Having hot food ready when I come home? Sounds like heaven to me!
Pot roast comes out so tender and juicy when made in the crock pot. It’s so easy and makes the house smell wonderful on a cold winter’s day.
I love making chili in my slow cooker, but I have been wrestling with frustration that it sometimes is just too small and feeling bad about wanting another one… So this post made me feel way better about the idea of having more than one. This sounds like a great recipe, thanks for the chance to enter!!
I mainly use my slow cooker for less than tender meats but I have also used it to make bread pudding.
My favorite crock pot recipe is French Onion Soup with Beef and Barley. Sooo good. I love making Apple Butter as well – but I like to add a little Apple Brandy for an extra kick 🙂
I’ve made a LOT of fruit sauce and butter in my slow cookers this year (peach, pear, apple …), but a perennial fave slow-cooker meal is my Spiked BBQ Chicken. Place boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the crock. If you like things oniony, add a very thinly sliced yellow onion, somewhat separated into rings. Pour a full bottle of your fave BBQ sauce and most of a bottle of hard cider (or beer). Cook on low for 6-8 hours, then shred the chicken into the sauce and let that meld a bit before serving over hamburger buns.
I routinely participate in a potluck where I help feed up to 25 people, so having another of these beauties would be spectacular!
This year is the first year I’ve used it for fruit butters and I LOVE it 🙂
I like to make apple butter and pear butter in my crockpot, I also like to soak my beans in it over night on low when I make chili, but I loaned my crockpot to someone and now it doesn’t work on low.Been hopeing to get one on sale with all the Christmas sales going on.You don’t know how much you use someting til its gone.
I love the ease of making apple butter in the crockpot. Also use for Taco Soup instead of stovetop, so it can cook on low all day and let the flavors blend.
I’ve never had a slow cooker, but I would love to try them for canning (apple butters, etc.), but also for cooking things like bean soups.
Yum!
my favorite slow cooker use is one i haven’t mastered yet – my mother makes this amazing potato soup recipe that I still haven’t been able to figure out, even though she gave me the general guidelines she uses (there’s no “recipe”).
I have been using mine lately for making food for my dogs.
I know what is going into it that way.
I use mine to make queso, fruit butters, creamed corn & simmering cheap cuts of meat to use later over pasta, in tacos, sandwiches, etc.. Mine’s super basic, so a slow cooker with more features would be very appreciated around here.
Thank you for holding the contest, love your blog!
I love slow cookers for soups – no tending on the stove, no worrying they will burn. I’ve been very intrigued by this cooker with it’s sealable lid so I’m excited to have the chance to win one.
Slow Cooker Barbecue Goose Sandwich – I have made it twice and it’s so delicious. We add cheese and gardinere to our sammies. MmMmmmm http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-barbecue-goose-sandwich/
What is a slow cooker *not* good for! I use it mostly for dinners, so convenient!
vegetable vindaloo! but this time of year .. mulled spiced cider. My slowcooker is OOOLD (I bought it second hand over 10 years ago, it’s a HB) I could really use a new one!
I use it for soups and stews the most, but have also been known to cook a roast in there or even macaroni and cheese. I use my slow cooker about twice a week, so it gets a lot of love, it could sure use a break if I had another one in rotation (I have been drooling over the programmable ones so that I can cook for shorter times while at work, I would make lasagna in it first)
I love to cook chicken in BBQ sauce overnight. Makes the best sandwiches!
My favorite use is definitely Moroccan Lentil Soup – makes the house smell amazing as it cooks all day.
Oh gosh! What don’t I use my Crock Pot for?? lol! I have made apple butter in my Crock Pot more than once. I love making Coq Au Vin in it. I also just made a huge batch of homemade hot chocolate in my Crock Pot for a party I hosted over the weekend. 🙂
I love my slow cooker in the winter – throw in a pound of stew meat and some type of sauce, seasonings, or spices – and dinner is done for you at the end of a long, cold day!
My favorite use for crockpots is actually summer cooking so I can avoid heating the house! Making fruit butters would come in close second…
I wish I could tell you some amazing recipe that I conscientiously plan and execute, but my ‘go to’ recipe is to throw a hunk of meat in the pot, douse it with some spices, glub in some liquid and let it do it’s thang. My slow cooker is old and basic, so I’m sure if I had this fancy schmancy cooker, I’d be amazing!
At least one meal a week is made in the slow cooker during the school year.
love to make a whole chicken in mine then
bothz
Grouse Chalupa!
I make porchetta in my slow cooker, and also apple butter, pot roast, garlic chicken……but mostly porchetta. Thanks for the contest!
Due to my Midwestern roots I use the slow cooker for just about everything, but my favorite would be roast. I cook a lot at once and use the meat for sandwiches, tacos, and pasties.
I’ve got a three-mini-pot slow cooker dealie that is perfect for Mexican night….the first crock simmers black beans in a mixture of a tomato sauce, diced onions and chilies, the second pot is for spiced pulled pork, and the third is for a chicken and chorizo mixture. Yum.
I love making chili in my crockpot!
I haven’t had a crockpot in quite some time, but I used to make a lot of stew in mine. I think I need a new one.
i use three differn’t slow cookers..two are small. and the oval is a large one…i make various dinners in these including desserts…my family’s favorite is apple crisp!
I make the best crock pot mac and cheese! Hmmm, I think I will make some today 🙂
I use my at least once a week in the winter for soups and stews. My DD will eat anything as long as it’s in soup form so my small crockpot is very well used. Never tried fruit butters due to scorching issues, love the idea of a cooker that turns itself off.
I am a recent convert to slow cookers, use mine mostly for soups and stews, but am now going to try apple butter for sure. And that snazzy cooker would make it so easy!
I’ve only ever used a crock pot for soups and stews but would love to try this recipe!
I have been wanting a slow cooker to make pulled pork but the idea of using them for fruit butter makes me want one even more!
You? A collector? I don’t see it 😉
First off, I love that shot of you in the reflection. Made me smile. 🙂
As for my favorite use of a slow cooker… well, despite not eating meat, I do enjoy preparing this pulled brisket recipe that we have for Eric. It always makes our place smell so good.
Hard to pick just one use ! I think I use it the most for keeping stuff warm, but my cheesy chicken and stuffing is awfully good !
Swedish meatballs! YUM!
I love to cook down my tomatoes for sauce in the crockpot-great roated flavor!
I made a yummy pear butter this fall…made the house smell great, too!
My uses go way back….to our wedding in 1974. My uses, right now butters and sauses. I make applesauce, either plain or with cranberries, cinnamon, pears, or other fruits (no burning) . Also, stews and chilis. mmmmmmmm!!! My lid went longgg ago…..Have a smaller lid which works ok.
Taco Soup and dry beans are my favorite crock pot uses. Also some indian food. The slow cooking makes it super tasty!
I love to use mine for stews of all kinds. I have a family of 6 and work as a firefighter/EMT and being able to cook a fast, healthy, and yummy meal is very important to me. I have recently been gathering items to start getting back into canning. Something I haven’t done for a number of years, but love doing. So this would be an awesome addition to my kitchen and family 🙂
I don’t have a slow cooker yet, so I don’t have a favorite slow cooker recipe. But I am excited about the possibilities it offers for roasting meats (char sui pork!) without heating up my huge oven/tiny kitchen.
I love to make chicken enchilada soup and pulled pork! My husband and I were just wishing for a 2nd (or even a 3rd) crock pot so we could do most of the crockpot cooking for the week all at once on Sunday evenings.
A simple version of poulet grande mere. Delish!
My new favorite thing to do with my slow cooker is caramelized onions for potato knish, because I hate hate HATE standing at the stove for the usual hour it takes to really, truly caramelize a pot full of onions. I have a few things I want to try after the new year – I have a recipe for licorice that takes an age to cook down I want to experiment with.
Oh please do share your recipe with us 🙂