Crockpot Apple Butter
A silky, deeply spiced apple butter made almost entirely hands-off in the slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 5 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and chopped mix of sweet and tart, like Honeycrisp or Gala with a few Granny Smith
- 1 cup packed brown sugar light or dark
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, and salt in a 6-quart crockpot. Stir until the apples are evenly coated.
- Cook on LOW for 9 hours (or HIGH for 5 hours), covered, until the apples are completely soft and falling apart.
- Blend the mixture right in the crockpot with an immersion blender until smooth. (No immersion blender? Carefully transfer to a regular blender in batches.)
- Uncover and cook on HIGH for 1 more hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the apple butter has thickened and mounds slightly on a spoon.
- Cool completely before transferring to jars or airtight containers.
Notes
Refrigerate in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks, or freeze for up to 6 months (leave headspace in jars — it expands as it freezes). Not a shelf-stable canning recipe as written.