The Bartlett Adventure: Recipe Tuesday Apple Butter

Hello friends, this last weekend I was so lucky to have one of my oldest friends S over for a few days. She was telling me how much she just wanted some apple butter so I made some for her and some caramel apple jelly for the road. I sent a dozen jars of jelly home with her. Today I am going to share the recipes with you. So can jar them if you want too, or you can just put it in the refrigerator for safe keeping. I will post the recipes and the directions for canning them. I recommend you check your extension service website to find out your elevation for me I am 699 feet above sea level which means that I would do a water bath for 10 minutes, but if you are over 6000 feet you would need to do a water bath for 35 minutes. So please check. Here is a general website http://www.simplycanning.com/altitude-adjustments.html. This website will only tell you how much time to add to your water bath. Jelly is one of the easiest things to start canning. So there is nothing to be afraid of. I just want to give you the best information that I can. The times that I put on here are for my elevation.

Okay now for the fun part! Recipes!

For both of these recipes I used Granny Smith apples, mostly because I like the tart taste. But if you do not like them for some reason feel free to use a different kind of apple. Also I bought 3 four pound bags of apples and split them between these recipes.

Apple Butter
from Ball Blue Book guide to preserving

4 pounds of apples or about 16 medium (again I used one 4 pound bag of apples plus four additional apples to make it extra thick.)
2 cups water
4 cups of sugar (I used half white sugar and half brown sugar)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves

To prepare pulp: wash and dry apples. Core, peel, and quarter apples. Combine apples and two cups of water in a large sauce pan. Simmer until the apples are soft. Puree using a food processor (or an old fashioned potato masher which is what I used. I like to have chunky bits. It is rustic. Rustic is cool) or food mill, being careful not to liquefy.

To make butter: Combine apple pulp, sugar, and spices in the same large pot you used to cook the apples in. Cook slowly until thick enough to round up on a spoon. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space (really there is no need to measure if you are using a canning funnel do not fill past the bottom of the funnel and you will be fine.) If you are not canning feel free to use any kind of container that has a lid and put in into the refrigerator. It will thicken up more as it cools off. If you are canning Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.