Crockpot Caramel Apple Butter

Crisp, autumn apples BEG to be simmered for hours with cinnamon and sugar and turned into a delectable treat to top toast, pancakes, muffins, scones, yogurt or whatever your heart desires, with.  This recipe is easy peasey lemon squeezey because it utilizes one of my favorite appliances... the crock-pot.

What you need:
5 and 1/2 pounds of apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup of white sugar*
1 cup of brown sugar*
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

* I like to start out with just the two cups of sugar.  Depending on the type of apple you are using you may want more sugar.  I suggest letting it cook for a while then tasting it.  You can add more sugar if you would like it to be sweeter. I would add it slowly though... maybe 1/2 cup at a time, let it cook for a bit, taste, and then add more if needed.

Optional: blender or food processor
If you want a finer apple butter you can run your chopped apples through a blender or food processor until they are smaller bits before proceeding with the recipe (not completely pureed like applesauce) or if you like it a bit chunkier then skip this option and carry on.

1. Dump apples into crockpot.

2. Mix sugar and spices into bowl and dump over apples.  Give a good stir.

3. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.

4. Reduce heat to low and cook for 12 more hours, stirring occasionally. Go ahead and taste it when you stir it... if you desire more sugar then add some in.  If I am going to let the apple butter cook overnight I use my "keep warm" setting.  The longer your butter cooks the deeper in color it will get... do not worry about the dark brown hue it is taking, it just means it is going to be delicious!  :)

5. For the last hour of cooking I remove the lid to let it thicken up.  Once it is the desired thickness go ahead and either put it in jars to freeze, refrigerate or give away OR you can process it.

To process in a hot water bath:

1. Make sure your hot water bath is ready and boiling and that your jars are warm and lids are hot.

2. You want your apple butter to be hot.  You can put it up to high in crockpot for 10 to 15 minutes and that should do the trick.

3. Ladle butter into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Wipe rims/threads with damp cloth.  Cover jars with hot lids and screw on the rings.

4. Process half pint jars in water bath for 10 minutes and pint jars for 15 minutes.

This recipe makes about 8 half pint jars.

Pinching Pennies - Homemade Jam

It's Thrifty Thursday and another way to pinch those pennies is by making your own jam/jelly.  I make jam year round even though we live in a state where winter lasts from November to March.  I freeze berries during berry season and when I run out then I either buy frozen berries or purchase berries that are on the reduced  produce rack for $0.99/lb.  I pick them over, compost any icky ones and then crush the rest for jam.  When I freeze berries, once they are thawed, I save the extra berry juice to make jelly ( the difference between jam and jelly is that jam has fruit chunks in it and jelly does not). 

I use this extremely easy recipe and Ball glass mason jars,  Ball plastic freezer jars with screw on lids, or just plain old Rubbermaid containers to put my jam in.  This past week I purchased 2lbs of fresh strawberries on clearance and 12 oz of raspberries.  I crushed each separately and added some leftover blueberry juice that I had in the freezer to each batch of berries.  I ended up making three large jars of jam for $2.50.

Enjoy the taste of summer all year long and bask in the smiles on your family's faces when they spread homemade jam on a big ol' slice of bread.

Until next time,

Dawna