Homemade Apple Butter

Monday, October 15, 2012

Last weekend I came home from the farmer’s market with a free box of slightly-imperfect Honeycrisp apples – about fifteen pounds worth. After making three pots of applesauce, apple crisp, and apple muffins, I still had quite a few left and decided to make a first attempt at from scratch apple butter.

The internet offered a variety of techniques (from stove-top and canning methods to overnight in the slow cooker), and I ended up following the SimplyRecipes version, with a few modifications. I used about half the sugar it called for, and didn’t notice a difference from store-bought apple butter, especially because my apples were much sweeter than the Granny Smiths the recipe suggested. I don’t have a food mill or chinois sieve, so I transferred the original mixture with the cores, peelings, and stems to a second pot, scooping out what I could of the solid parts, boiled it down, and then at the end when pouring it into a jar, I used a mesh strainer to make sure it was smooth.

The entire process took over three hours, with a lot of standing-and-stirring time, but the finished product was totally worth it. I’m looking forward to trying some variations, like pumpkin apple butter and cranberry apple butter. (New Jersey cranberries are starting to show up at the market!)