This Crockpot Apple Butter recipe is going to make your house smell amazing. If you are going to make this, prepare your husband before he gets home that you are not eating what he smells for dinner! My hubby came home last night and immediately said, “What’s for dinner? Smells great!” LOL–Sorry, honey! This batch is for gifts!
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
This is a super easy recipe for Slow Cooker Apple Butter. It is also a great homemade holiday gift idea for teachers or family. Once you add up the cost of the apples and the jars, it is pretty affordable, especially for a really special homemade gift that people LOVE!
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A few things you need to get started:
- crockpot
- funnel
- canning jars (recommended 8 oz. jars)
- large stock pot (to boil jars/lids)
- recipe ingredients
- 12 hours to cook from start to finish
Here is the recipe for the Apple Butter, be sure to read the instructions and full recipe BEFORE you start — you need a 12-hour window from start to finish. It makes approximately six 8-oz. jars or three 12-oz. jars. Below are step by step instructions, with pictures to show you how to do each one. The process is super easy! Let me know how yours turn out.
Canning Apple Butter
If you are looking for a recipe for canning Apple Butter please note: The recipe below is not a formal “canning” recipe. For the recipe below, you can refrigerate or freeze to preserve your apple butter longer. Or, you can click on the links in the recipe below for step by step directions on canning your apple butter. Since these are apples, you will need to have them in a waterbath canner for about 20 minutes, not the 40 minutes listed in the canning tomatoes tutorial link. Hope you enjoy them!
- 5.5 lbs apples, cored, peeled and cut into quarters
- 3 cups sugar
- ⅔ cup cider vinegar
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp salt
- Combine all ingredients and cook in crockpot on low for 10-12 hours, or until they are mushy and soft. The apple mixture will look like dark applesauce.
Instructions for preserving these in the refrigerator or freezer:
1. Once apples are ready (they will look like dark brown applesauce), boil the jars and lids (not the rings/bands, just the part that you screw on) in a large stock pot for about five minutes.
PLEASE NOTE: If you want to do a pure “canning method,” follow a water bath canning procedure. Apple butter would be at least a 20-minute boil, depending on your altitude. If you go through this process, you may leave the jars on a shelf in your cabinet or pantry. However, the steps I have listed here require you to refrigerate and use the apple butter within a few weeks. If you want to keep it longer than that, you may freeze it.
Be sure to fill water to the top of the jars. This is to kill any bacteria on the jars and to provide a seal for the lids.
2. Use tongs to remove each jar from the water. Lay on a towel and put your funnel on the mouth of the jar. Fill apple butter up to about 1 inch from the lip.
3. Be sure the rim of the jar is completely clean. Wipe it after you remove funnel.
4. Use tongs to remove lid. (This has the sealant on it. It is a reddish color on the underside.) Lay it on the jar and screw the jar rings on tight. Then unscrew just a bit. Set upside down on towel to allow the heat from the apples and jar to create a good seal.
5. Repeat this process with each jar. You should get about five or six 8 ounce jars, or three 12 ounce jars.
Find more Homemade Gift Ideas on Faithful Provisions.
Recipe developed by Kelly Hancock ©2010 Faithful Provisions. For personal use only. May not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed for capital gain without prior permission from Kelly Hancock.
This sounds delicious. I gave several jars of Bananna Butter & fresh bread for Christmas gifts this year and they were a big hit.
Shannon,
Your Banana Butter sounds so yummy!! I’ll bet whomever received it was in heaven especially with fresh bread!!!
Would you please send me the recipe so I could try it???
Thanks so much.
OH Shannon, do please leave your Banana Butter recipe as a comment here! I know I would love it and I guess others would too.
The recipe calls for peeled, cored, quarted apples but in the pictures it looks like they have the peel left on. So, do you peel or not?
Carolyn, I didn’t peel mine, but I really should have. It was very difficult to get all the peel out once they were mushy! I highly recommend peeling first.
Shannon, I would also LOVE to have your banana butter recipe. Thank you Kelly for the apple butter recipe!
I WOULD ALSO GET THE BANANA BUTTER RECIPE
I’d like this BANANA BUTTER recipe as well, please
I make crockpot applebutter that is a lot like this but I leave the skins on the apples which makes it so much easier and then once they cook down I put them in the food procesor or blender and process the and then put them back in the crockpot to cook down. Doing it this way makes it smooth and no lumps! My kids love this stuff and will eat it right out of the jar!
What kind of apples?
What type of apples work best for this? Thanks!