We’ve been mostly enjoying the 6 apple trees that I inherited over the summer with the new house. The one closest to the house has been bombing me most of the summer. It is very overgrown and branches were reaching over the top of the house. Many times at night I was woken by ‘bomb’s’ of apples hitting the roof tiles and rumbling down to the ground. Finally that tree quit when all the apples were down and removed by me. Some were eaten but most of them when into the compost pile. Yes, I did put the word out for volunteers to come and take apples but got very few takers. Now the apple trees further out are ripe. The geese in the neighborhood all know about the free food so they are hanging out all the time. Not being able to stand the guilt from not picking and using them I’ve started using them, apple cake for a dinner party, applesauce on Friday (it was ok with a sweet flavor) and apple butter today… Some friends came and got some yesterday, which was nice. I was wondering if anyone made apple butter anymore so I looked up a couple of recipes online and found a lot of information. Of course I could not use just one recipe but a mixture of several to come up with an apple butter all my own. I wanted a twist so this one has apple brandy added and I used a crock-pot because many recipes said you could use one to help the slow cooking process. It was great! Some recipes call for just putting the finished apple butter in the refrigerator and serving after a couple of weeks but I prefer to put it in canning jars and use a water bath process to preserve it.
Of the three trees that are ripe now, there are two red delicious apple trees and one unknown variety. The red delicious apple used to be the best eating apple in the 1970’s. Usually grown east of the mountains they don’t usually do that well here on the west side. These, however, are very very good. Most recipes call for mixing varieties of apples for flavor. Red delicious apples are not usually good for cooking so mixing them was a good idea. Here’s the recipe I used.
Ingredients:
- 3 Quarts of a variety of apples
- 3 cups plain sugar
- ½ cups water
- ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup apple brandy
- 7-10 ½ pint jars with lids and bands
Step One: Peel, core and chop (not too small) your apples and place in your crock-pot. Stir in the plain sugar and water and heat on high until the mixture comes to a boil. Turn the crock-pot down one level and cook for another 1 ½ hrs or until apple chunks are softened.
Step Two: Add remaining ingredients (brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, brandy) and let cook another 2 hours or so. The apple butter will be done when it reaches a dark caramel color and stays firm when cooled on a spoon. I like my apple butter on the chunky side.
Step Three: Sterilize the ½ pint jars and lids. Pour the boiling butter into the jars and process them in a water bath for 25 minutes. (new to canning click here for more information)
Try warm bread and butter with a spoonful of apple butter for a great fall treat!
