Tag Archives: Apples

Food Preservation DIY, Kitchen DIY, Snacks DIY

Easy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

This is a continuation of what I did with forty pounds of fresh, organic apples  hubby and I picked a few weeks ago.  He requested apple butter to be one of the results of the apple trip, and I couldn’t refuse.  But honestly, I never knew this was a “thing” until I met my hubby.  I am guessing his Missouri -born mom made it a time or two when he was a boy.  The stuff is good, but I look at it and wonder what to do with it.  The hubby uses it like a jam, but I see me pouring this over yogurt, ice cream or a bundt cake.  It has a lot of spice/flavor so whatever I add it to better be boring. Once you prep the apples, this recipe definitely goes in the “easy” category.  And another bonus is how good this makes the house smell for 10 hours.

DSC_0780DSC_0778Here I am slicing, coring and peeling. I quarter the slices and place them and a dash of lemon juice in the slow cooker.

 

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DSC_0783Nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice(I didn’t have cloves), brown sugar and granulated sugar.  I mixed these together and poured over the sliced apples in the crock-pot.

DSC_0790This is eight hours later: Spicy Applesauce

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After allowing the moisture to cook-out, I took the immersion blender and turned a spicy applesauce into apple butter.

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This is my homemade greek yogurt topped with apple butter, dark chocolate, and peanuts.  Trust me, this stuff won’t last in my freezer very long.

Easy Crock Pot Apple Butter

Excerpted mostly word for word from: http://www.deniseinbloom.com/crockpot-apple-butter-recipe/

 

Ingredients

  • Apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large sections. (enough to fill your Crockpot to the top). I used 6 pounds or 12  Cortland apples
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar. I used just one cup
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar. I used just one cup
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves. Nope, none handy, so I switched with all spice
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp lemon juice. I used the lemon juice in the beginning to keep the apples from turning, so I did not add more.

Directions

  • Fill crock-pot with prepared apples.
  • In separate bowl combine and stir, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. (reserve the rest of the sugar for later)
  • Pour sugar and spice mixture over apples.
  • Turn crock-pot onto low and cook apples for 10 hours. After first 1-2 hours gently stir in the sugar mixture to coat the apples.
  • Leave it and forget it now.  At this point I let mine cook overnight
  • After 10 hours take lid off and stir. Your mixture will be very dark and cooked down by about half the capacity of your crock-pot.
  • Stir in lemon juice, and vanilla.
  • At this point taste your apple butter for sweetness. I had tart firm apples and they needed more sugar, so I then added the additional 1/2 cup of granulated and 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar. You can adjust accordingly to your taste and the apples you are using.
  • Let apple butter continue to cook for 1-2 hours with lid off to absorb more liquid and make apple butter thicken more.
  • At the end of the cooking time, smooth apple butter with an emulsion blender.
  • Spoon into clean pint jars, and cover tightly with jar lid and ring. Be sure to leave room at the top of the jar if freezing.

Snacks DIY

Dehydrated Apples

It’s Fall in the Midwest and one of our many rites of passage before winter has us in it’s grasp is to head to one of the apple orchards in the area to pick our own apples.  Since I have an organic requirement, the apple orchard we went to is a little further away but the apples are well worth it. We stood at one tree and picked 20 lbs of Cortlands and then moved a few rows over to the Ida Reds and stood at one tree and picked another 20 lbs of apples.  We were done and heading back home in twenty minutes. So, I have 40 lbs of apples to use up, and I am so very gleeful about this.  The next day I pulled my apple peeler, corer and slicer out of storage. It is an absolute must if you are working with more than a few apples.  My first apple project was dehydrated apples.  My daughter’s boyfriend’s father is a big dehydrating guy,  and he gifted a few bags of dried apples to me in exchange for fresh eggs.  I absolutely loved the flavor, so I bugged both the boyfriend and later the father for the recipe.  He gave me a few, invaluable steps, and as you will see, I ran with them.

Gather your apples.  I used about a dozen or 6 lbs of apples, and I used the Courtlands(I’m saving the Idas for eatin’)

I used this handy kitchen gadget to core and slice the apples. It saves a lot of time, and it also slices the apples uniformly.

I poured a cup of pineapple juice with a half cup of lemon juice, and I put the apples in this liquid to both keep them from turning brown and to add sweetness.

I spooned about two cups of the sliced apples into a bag with a little juice and a half teaspoon of cinnamon, and I shook until all of the apples were evenly covered. Repeat with all apples and refresh the cinnamon with each bag.

Here are the apples before going into the dehydrator. I used all ten trays and set the temperature to 135 degrees for 8 hours. I didn’t want to completely dry the apples, so I kept the drying time shorter.

This was the first time dehydrating apples, and I have to admit, these turned out to be quite tasty.