APPLE BUTTER THE EASY WAY

Crock Pot Apple Butter

-By-

Neil Waring

Revered Wyoming Chef, an outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, author, and honored citizen.

At one time I was more active on this blog, hard to be less active than I am now at the rate of one post each year. What happened? I ran out of things I could cook. It seems I spent much more time on my Wyoming Fact and Fiction blog and my western writing blog. These days. For long-time followers, I also write, sporadically, on a gardening blog. But I’m back, today something new.

Late summer in Wyoming and many other parts of America it is apple picking time. It’s not hard to find free apples in any neighborhood. This year I made one of my favorite’s Apple Butter. On a cold winter morning, almost nothing tastes better than Apple Butter on Toast.

Pick them off the tree or pick them up from the ground

Ingredients

Apples :-)

Sugar – brown or white granulated, I prefer brown

Cinnamon, ground allspice, ground clove

That’s it, my friends

Crock Pot Apple Butter

1.  Get some apples, if you are lucky someone might bring you a sack or basket full.

2.  Peel apples. I like to see how many I can peel in one long peel like my dad used to do. Answer 2, not bad. Don’t remember how many apples I had eight or ten I guess.

3.  Cut apples into chunks, small ones. How small? Approximately ½ inch pieces.

4.  Keep peeling and chunking until the crock pot is full. I use a small 2-quart cooker for this.

Ready to cook

5.  I do not believe extra water is needed, but I put in one tablespoon in the bottom to start. I like to cook everything high and fast, pretty hard with a slow cooker, but add the water to make sure the bottom pieces do not stick and burn. Not sure how they could with me checking and stirring ever hour – but, you never know.

6.  After one hour on high, add one cup of brown sugar, two teaspoons of cinnamon, one teaspoon of allspice, and ½ teaspoon of ground clove.

One hour after adding seasonings

7.  Turn to low and let it cook. I check every hour or two and mash any large chunks I see with a fork.

8.  After six hours I turn the pot to warm – the lowest setting and leave it alone overnight.

9.  Spread on toast and enjoy. Keep refrigerated after opening. If you are not hot water sealing the jars, refrigerate all of the butter. Don’t worry it won't last long.

Yum - Ready to eat

Apple Butter Notes – adjust the sugar, cinnamon, clove and allspice to your taste. Many recipes call for twice this amount of sugar, but it seems over the top sweet to me with this much sugar. I love the flavor of clove, but if the butter has too much it will make your mouth feel a bit numb, not sure it that is good or not. How do I know this? Let's just say through experimentation.

Good Luck – My wife uses this in various baked goods, and it makes everything taste better, try it on hot dogs, delicious. Maybe!

Final Note – Do people still call them crock pots? I think in the past twenty years, or so they have become slow cookers. No matter still makes great apple butter and don’t call it jelly.

Nice to be back

Here is a link to my books - Note - gardening book coming soon!

New Fangled Apple Butter

New Fangled Apple Butter

-Almost like mom used to make –

-by-
Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

Well another Christmas has come and gone and we have a new year, forgot which one, but it is new.

Look over at the big table in the dining room and what do you see, sure, it’s the same every year a basket full of wrinkling apples. We all love apples at Christmas, but we never eat them, not any more. When we were kids things like apples, oranges and soda pop were treats, not any more, now we have them all the time.

“What do we do with all the left over apples,” Thanks for asking.

 Don’t you hate throwing away or composting something that should have been eaten three weeks ago? Well you can still eat it, maybe not as a crunchy apple, but how about some new fangled, old fashioned Apple Butter?

It’s easy, it’s tasty and it’s really kind of fun to make. (It refers to the Apple Butter)

-Here’s the how and what you need stuff-

·        Apples, as few as 4 or 5 will work, more if you have them

·        Crock Pot

·        Cinnamon

·        Clove (if you like it—I do)

·        That’s it – NO SUGAR NEEDED

 

ü Peel apples-this is important as peels do not cook down worth a darn and then those little bitty pieces will get stuck in your teeth and you will have to pull them out before you put teeth in a glass of water for the night.

ü Cut your peeled apples into small chunks (about an inch by two) and not more than a ½ inch thick.

ü Put a tiny amount of water in the bottom of the crock pot, just enough to cover—no more.

ü Toss in apples

ü Turn on high for two hours or until apples soften to a state where they can be easily mashed (or if you prefer-smashed)

ü Mash with fork, spoon or potato masher, or you can get in there and walk around, wine making style, if your crock pot is large enough and you are mashing a few thousand apples.

ü Turn crock pot to lowest setting-mix in cinnamon to taste and as much clove as you can stand—too much and it will make your mouth numb, kind of cool really

ü Leave on lowest setting for 8-10 hours (all night?)

ü In the morning turn the setting up and cook all day, checking, stirring and tasting every two hours. (do not let it burn and stick around the edges)

ü When the excess water has cooked off you have apple butter (it’s just applesauce until then)

There you have it an old fashioned treat made in a new fangled way.

ENJOY AND HAPPY COOKIN’