I was intending on writing this post last night but I ended up nodding off here in front of my Mac laptop and I was really tired. I had very little sleep because the insomnia is kicking my butt. It gets a lot worse when I am feeling stressed. As you see I have my slow cooker in the background in this picture. I got enough of apples for two batches of apple butter and made one last yesterday and one today.
I am waiting for second batch to cool so I can put it in mason jar. Ok it cooled down some becsuse I had just checked on it and filled up another qt size mason jar. I use these instead of the small jelly jars unless if I was giving it away as a gift. It is because here in my house we go through jam like crazy.
Mr. Riaz can’t say no to my jam. I had to even tell him hands off the apples so I can get these made. If I hadn’t I would have no apples to make apple butter with and it would make me angry. One thing of making jam is that It would take a while longer to enjoy fruit more often. When I told my dad that I make homemade jam and pickles, he told me it is called canning and my grandmother used to do it.
The word was out she was the best cook in her family. I wish she was here to taste my jams and pickles. The method for me making apple butter goes like this: I had 2 bags of apples. They can be any type but I used gala. it depends on which type and when they are available. It also depends on your locality. I think a slow cooker is awesome for making apple butter. I have made this before and the original top was plastic and this thing melted.
When I went and lifted the top, it came off in two sections. Then I looked for a replacement top and found one company on the net and I placed my order and when I got it that I found it was twice as big as my slow cooker. It is also called a crockpot but the liner in mine is not removable but there are some that are.
I told a friend about this who is an artist about this. I known her for many years and she was laughing. She suggested I put foil over the top and I did it last yesterday and it worked splendedly. She thought it was funny though. Mr. Riaz wanted to buy me a new one and I said no need because this still works. All I need is to replace the lid on mine.
In my mortar and pestle I ground in to a coarse powder, This is per batch 2 cloves, 1 broken piece of star anise, 1 broken piece of cinnamon stick, 3 allspice berries, 1 strand of mace, after I ground these then I grated some nutmeg in to my mortar so I do not have to dirty up another dish that is equaling a small pinch and mixed it with the rest of the spices I had ground. This can also be used for making spice cake as well but I will talk later on that one. I also filled up a large bowl filled with cold water with 1 tbs of white vinegar added and put the apples in there to wash the pesticides off the apples.
I set this aside and cut and took out of the core out of all of the apples in the bag. I cut in half first and then made thin slices out of the apple halves. this makes it much easier to remove the core and you get more fruit. Through each slice carefully cut out the cores and blossem ends then cut in make each slice in to 3 pieces. Just cut them twice more and put them in the slow cooker as you go. I did not peel the apples and really did not feel the need because this fruit makes its own pection and there is no need to add any.
Add 1 tsp of lemon juice, 1/2 cup of turbinado sugar, 1/4 cup of water, stir and close the lid and plug in your slow cooker. Let it cook on high for 5 to 6 hours. When the apples are totally mushy then take an immersion blender and blend while the apple butter is still cookling Now it is looking like a spicy applesauce. It will thicken up quite a bit too. It also thickens up a bit more.
Please be cautious because this gets very hot so handle with care especially so proceed with caution when filling mason jars. This is one batch per 1 quart mason jars, 1 batch uses 1 bag of apples. Enjoy this on toast, english muffin, bagels, whole grain bread, toast, pancakes, waffles, french toast or even as a cake topping or in between lairs before you ice the top of the cake.
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