Lazy Apple Butter
Why I Love This Recipe
This makes about 2 half-pint jars.
Ingredients You'll Need
10 medium apples, cored, peeled and chopped (I used Winesaps, Maccouns, Macs and one lone Granny Smith)
juice of one lemon
1 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups apple cider
Directions
Put the apples in the crockpot and coat with lemon juice.
In a seperate bowl combine the rest of the dry ingredients and then combine with the apples. Use your hands (or a spoon) and make sure the apples have spices all over them.
Pour 2 cups of the apple cider over the spiced apples.
Cook on HIGH in the crockpot for one hour. Then switch the heat to low and let the mixture cook for about another 10 hours or so. I recommend doing this at night while you sleep so you can wake up to apple butter goodness.
After 10 hours (or when you wake up), check the butter. If it looks like a bowl of brown goo and tastes good, you're done. If it looks too gloppy, put in the other 1/2 cup of cider, take off the lid of the crockpot and let cook on low heat for another hour.
Place in sterilized jars and eat up. If you're going to be eating this within a few days, you don't have to go through the rigors of preserving, but if you're planning on giving away some jars as gifts or you don't think you can finish a half-pint of apple butter in a few days, I recommend it.
