I love all the seasons up here in the northland. Every season has it's wonderful produce to make delectable recipes for your family and friends. Apples are at their peak right now. You have to wait until it gets really cold outside so those apples take on their wonderful tastes.
This year I decided to make some apple butter. My co-worker told me that she had a wonderful crock pot apple butter recipe. I took her recipe and also looked on Pinterest to see if there were any other recipes that incorporated cranberries. I found one on Pinterest. This recipe is so good. I put both recipes together and came up with a very yummy apple butter. I bought some of those wonderful apples and I had some left over cranberries from my Cranberry Orange Bread with Yogurt and decided to add them to the apple butter to give it a little different taste.
All I can say is....Yummy! Apple butter brings me back to when I was a little girl. I use to love spreading it on toast and I still do... I do hope you enjoy this wonderful treat from my kitchen.
It always looks so good when the apples break down in the slow cooker. The aroma in your kitchen of cooking apples brings you back to autumns past. Once they have gone through the canning process, label them and stick them in the pantry until you are ready to gift them during the holidays.
Canning 101
Now it's time to "can" this wonderful apple butter. I decided to make the apple butter for gifts for Christmas. It made 12 jelly jars of apple butter. If you have never canned anything before, this might be the time to learn. It's very easy...
Purchase jelly jars at the grocery store. Wash them good and then sterilize. I actually put them in the dishwasher and run a complete cycle. Make sure they are very clean. Fill the jars to 1/2" of the rim. Sterilize the bands and lids. (Place on stove in pan with water and boil them. Keep in water until ready to use.)
Remove lids and bands with tongs and make sure the rims of the jelly jars are very clean. Wipe them down good with paper toweling. You want to make sure their seal will be good. Also wipe down the lids. Place the lids and then the bands onto the jars. Don't over tighten.
In the meantime you should be boiling water in a canner. When it comes to a full boil, turn it down a little bit and place your jars in the water bath. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Turn off stove and remove jars from water bath. Place the jars on a clean towel on your counter and wait for the wonderful sound of the lids popping. Your jars are sealed when they pop and the lid is indented in the middle. Let them cool and place in your pantry for presents for the family or for you.
Here are the tools you will need: Jelly jars, lids, wide mouth funnel, canner and canning tongs. If you are just starting out, the jars come with lids. After that, you will have to purchase new lids when canning new items. Canning lids can't be used more than once. I save the old ones and use them for left overs in the refrigerator.
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Prices very for these items. The canner can be purchased at any hardware store, bog box store, or Amazon.
I found this video on youtube. This gal explains the process very clearly.This video let's you know that canning is safe and fun to do. Come September and October you can can all those wonderful fruits and veggies. I love making salsa and this is a great way to preserve that wonderful salsa for use at Thanksgiving and Christmas or for just everyday.
Slow Cooker Apple Cranberry Butter
Ingredients:
4 - 5 pounds apples (your choice) - don't peel
1-2 cups cranberries
1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
1 cup maple syrup
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsps. vanilla extract
Directions:
- Before you start, make sure your canning jars are cleaned and sanitized. I put mine in the dishwasher for a full cycle including drying time. (For further instructions on canning check out Canning 101 above. The video is a great source for canning information.
- Core and chop apples; do not peel
- Place apples, cranberries, cranberry juice in slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for about 4-5 hours.
- Puree in sieve, food mill, food processor or and immersion blender.
- Return mixture to crock pot and add maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and vanilla.
- Cover and cook on high for 1 to 2 hours
One Final Thought...
I'm sitting here today and it's below zero outside. It was fun thinking about canning for a few hours. Autumn is such a fun time of year and canning is a fun thing to do in the fall. I can hardly wait until next fall again...however, after fall comes a crazy cold winter like this one again. I guess I'll just think about the coming summer right now, not autumn quite yet! 😊
