I stared with a  bowl full of apples I had picked from my apple tree and my friends tree (Thanks Terry) and debated on what I wanted  to do with them.  Make apple pie filling?  Freeze the apples for later use?  Make apple jelly?

In the end I decided to make apple butter.  My sister had given me a jar of apple butter from Cracker Barrel last year and it was so good.  I searched the internet for recipes and they all seemed to be complicated and required the use of a food mill.  I have been canning over 30 years and I don’t own a food mill but I do own a food processor and it has always worked wonderfully.

Here are the steps I used to make my apple butter :

For the most part, I used the directions for making apple butter from my Ball Blue Book of canning.  I have no idea how many pounds of apples I started with but the  apples filled a 2 1/2 gallon bucket.

I simply peeled and cored the apples, cut them into large chunks, and placed them into a Fruit Fresh/water bath (you can also use lemon juice) so they wouldn’t turn brown.  The Fruit Fresh step is not required and it won’t affect the taste of  the apple butter , only the color.  Once I had all of my apples cut,  I removed them from the Fruit Fresh water bath  and placed them in a large pot, covered them with water and  cooked them until they were soft.  I then put the softened  apples into a food processor and pureed them until it became applesauce.  I had about 3 pints of applesauce when finished.

*note ~ Most of the water should evaporate while cooking the apples but if there is a lot of water left once the apples have softened, simply drain the water before putting apples in the food processor.

I took the applesauce from the food processor and put into a large pot adding the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves to taste.  My apples were sweet and I didn’t have to add much sugar.  I ended up cooking my apple butter about two hours on low heat, stirring frequently.

I processed my apple butter according to directions below (10 minutes in boiling water bath)

INGREDIENTS

• 4 pounds (about 16 medium)
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook apples in small amount of water until apples are soft.
2. Put through food mill  or in a food processor until consistency of applesauce.
3. Place your processed apples (applesauce) in a large pan. Add sugar and spices.
4. Cook on low heat stirring frequently to prevent burning.  Cook until mixture is thick and smooth (1 -2 hours).

CANNING

Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps  Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

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