Crock-Pot Apple Butter
on Sep 01, 2019, Updated Oct 13, 2021
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This crockpot apple butter is a simple apple recipe that allows all of your senses to celebrate the glory of autumn.
Apple butter is traditionally made over many hours on the stove top or even in the oven, and today we are showing you a simpler way.
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Growing up in the foothills of New York State’s Adirondack mountains, when fall arrived, we were surrounded by apples galore.
My dear cousin recanted a favorite apple story of mine.
One of our aunts asked her sister if she had the apple pie recipe of one of their other sisters.
Our aunt Esther summarily and succinctly responded, “I think she uses macs.”
That’s how folks rolled back then in those parts and apple season was a highly anticipated time.
Make your own crockpot apple butter recipe at home!
What is apple butter?
Apple butter is essentially cooked-down applesauce.
It can be used as a savory spread (like jam) or any number of apple recipes.
The Best Apples for this Apple Butter Recipe
If you’re wondering what are the best apples to use for making apple butter, I would say whatever apples you have on hand!
Although some sources will tell you that the soft varieties are the best apples for this recipe because they cook down faster, this factor is less critical when you are making slow cooker apple recipe.
How to make apple butter in a crock pot
- Core about 3 pounds of apples, leave the skins on, and put them in your slow cooker.
- Add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
- Let the slow cooker work its magic!
We use Honey Crisp apples from our backyard for this easy fall recipe.
Even though we had plenty of fresh apples of all varieties and even our own local apple cider mill, we still did not have access to one apple delicacy in particular: Apple Butter.
Or so I thought.
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To get this coveted apple recipe, our family had to drive 60 miles or so to the Ontario border, at the very top of New York state.
Or, was this just part of an elaborate scheme for my folks to take a few days off from farming and pay their kin a visit to the Motherland?
My mom and dad were smart people.
This crockpot apple recipe will fill your whole neighborhood with the delicious scents of fall.
Top Recipe Tips
- Leave the apple skins on.
- Let the mixture cook slowly, for hours and hours.
- Use an immersion blender to smooth everything out at the end.
- Reduce any excess liquid at the end by slow cooking with the cover off.
While I was putting this together, which could hardly be less complicated, I could not help but wonder if my folks were aware how easy this is to make.
Granted, crock pots weren’t marketed until around 1971 and took a while to come into vogue.
Still, this apple recipe and countless others serve as stark reminders of the usefulness of our slow cookers. Today, it’s hard to imagine any kitchen without one.
This flavorful spread makes an excellent topping for dinner rolls or toast.
As I mentioned, we did consider this food a delicacy – to the point that I grew up thinking that it was made exclusively in Canada.
Thus, the 2 hours or so journey to the birthplace of my great-grandfather, the namesake for our oldest son, was made once or twice each year.
These visits usually occurred in the fall and lasted a week or so while my parents made their rounds, visiting and staying with one cousin of theirs or another.
Every time we crossed the border on the trip back from Ontario to New York, we always brought with us the memories of a lifetime.
And apple butter. Happy fall to you.
Try this sweet and savory apple recipe this fall!
Besides using it as a spread, this easy apple recipe can be used as an ingredient in many different other recipes.
See our homemade apple butter recipe below, along with some of our favorites recipes that use apple butter
More Apple Recipes for You
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Apple Butter
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Ingredients
- Approximately 3 lb. apples
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 tsp. cloves
- Dash of salt
- 3/4 cup water or fresh apple cider
Instructions
- Fill Crock-pot 3/4 full with cored and sliced apples.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir until evenly mixed.
- Cover and cook on low setting overnight or until the butter is of a thick, spreadable consistency.
- Use immersion blender to purée and incorporate skins into the apple butter.
- If apple butter has too much liquid, remove lid and cook on high until thickened. Stir often as butter thickens to prevent scorching.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Updated from the original recipe of November 5, 2014.
Recipes that use apple butter
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Thank you for showing the people that don’t know the difference between the stuff that grocery stores are presenting as apple butter, and the real stuff that is so much more enjoyable. Grocery store apple butter is apple jelly, like you’d find on a counter in a diner.
Hi, I have several questions regarding your recipe. Do you recommend a certain type of apple over others? I love apple butter but it’s full of sugar, can I use sugar substitute like Truvia? Is there a certain amount of hours it needs to cook you say to cook overnight? How much does this recipe yield?
Hi Joan, Use your favorite apples or whatever you have on hand. It’s more about the apple flavor than the specific variety. Apples are naturally sweet, so you can add your sweetener of choice in whatever quantity that you are comfortable with. Temperatures of slow cookers will vary, as will the consistency of apples, based on different factors that include variety, freshness, etc. You’ll want to slow-cook this recipe until the fibrin in the fruit is broken down, and it is rendered mushy and spreadable. The yield of this recipe is dependent upon the number of apples that you use. As with most recipes, adjust the total quantity of ingredients to what you have on hand and to what your taste and desired consistency are. Basically, you are dehydrating the apples with this process.
This is one of the easiest recipes that produces an awesome tasting apple butter. I have reduced the sugar to even less than the suggested substitute of 1 C honey . I used about 2/3 cup honey. It has less calories and the taste was great. I’ve been making it for the past couple of weeks, since I’ve been sending it to friends and family (after they heard I made it) and kept running out.
Thanks for this Winner!!
Michael! Thanks for the terrific feedback on this easy apple butter recipe; I love your use of honey and I’ll be trying that modification myself!
Just wondering if you can hot bath this recipe?
Hi Shelia; we have not made anything in a hot bath but if you decide to try it, please let us know your results.
I can’t wait to make this Apple butter, I live in NZ and its spring here not fall, or Autumm as we call it. However I’m going to buy some apples just to try this Apple Butter. I have 2 grandsons staying with me as its school hols so they can help make it and then be my testers. I’ll report back how we get on, I can’t wait to make it and try it, never having heard of apple butter before.
We are so excited to see your comments. Try the butter and be sure and use it in some of the many recipes that we feature this sweet and savory condiment!
Our family loves apple butter. The best and it is so expensive in the market. I will try this tonight in crockpot. Just leave it on all night. It’s says to leave skins on. Don’t know about that but it will mske prep easier. If this turns out my family eill be thrilled. On Thomas English muffins for breakfast or on top of post meal on cold morning .
This is a must-make this fall!
This looks absolutely delicious! Yummy!
A huge slather of apple butter on toast – I can’t resist it! This looks delicious!