Apple butter in autumn is an Appalachian tradition. Historically, it’s a day-long event. Whole families would join together to simmer apple butter in copper kettles as big as wash tubs. This tradition is largely lost, but you can still find communities coming together over apple butter. The little church in town is making apple butter this weekend, the old-time way, in a copper kettle, and it’ll take all day. But you can make it at home and it’s just as good–minus the copper kettle ambience. I love apple butter. Apple butter is one of the traditions my father brought with him when he left these hills long ago after World War II. I grew up on apple butter and yes, sometimes I thought it was odd. None of my friends had apple butter at their house. But we did. I still love apple butter today, so it’s been fun to learn how to make it. I learned straight from the feet of Georgia, so I figure mine’s as traditional as it gets without getting out a copper kettle, though of course I couldn’t resist playing around with the recipe a bit.
First, you gotta get some apples and I got mine the old-fashioned way, off the apple tree behind the old farmhouse. First, you gotta shake the tree.
I would tell you how many apples hit me on the head, but that would be embarrassing.
For each batch per this recipe, you’ll need about four pounds (maybe 16 medium) apples (or more if your apples are small, like the ones off the old apple tree).
Cut, peel (if you must, see note), and core them. Place in a large pot; bring to a boil and simmer until soft but not liquified. Puree using a food processor or food mill.
Note: I don’t peel them. I just cut, core, and cook. I use a food mill, and by the time the apples go through the food mill, the peel is pretty well strained out. (It’s so much easier not to peel!)
What you want to end up with is two quarts of apple pulp (per recipe batch).
Don’t know how to can? Learn how here.
How to make Apple Butter:
2 quarts apple pulp
4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Combine apple pulp, sugar, and spices in a large pot. Simmer slowly until mixture thickens and rounds up on a spoon. (May take a couple of hours.) Stir frequently. Ladle hot butter into jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Put on lids and bands. Process in a hot water bath for ten minutes. For me, this makes about five and a half jars (half-pint size). You can double, triple, etc, the recipe to make as much as you want. Your house will smell great while it’s cooking!
And oh my, this is good. Yet I had to play with the recipe anyway. What’s good with apples? Raisins! How about a little rum? And I made the best apple butter in the history of apple butter. Don’t ask me for my research to back up this claim. I have none. I just know.
How to make Rum-Raisin Apple Butter:
Per the 2-quarts apple butter in the above recipe, add 1 cup raisins when combining the apple and spices in the pot to begin simmering. Toward the end of the simmering time, as the mixture is thickening, add 1/2 cup rum. (Don’t add the rum earlier as you don’t want all the good rum flavor to boil away!) Simmer a little while longer until mixture is thick and ready for canning, and can as per the previous instructions.
Spread it on some toasted Grandmother Bread and it’s just outrageous.
And then, as if this isn’t enough goodness, I made coffee cake. With apple butter. YUM. This recipe is similar to biscuit twists, except instead of separating the dough into twists, you bake it all together and slice it. And it’s so easy!!
How to make Easy Apple Butter Coffee Cake:
3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 cups Quick Mix or other baking mix
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup milk
approximately 3/4 of one jam-sized (half-pint) jar of apple butter (or any jam of choice)
Cut cream cheese and butter into baking mix plus the one tablespoon of added sugar using a pastry cutter. (If you don’t want this to be as sweet, leave the extra sugar out. Depends on your sweet tooth!) Add milk. Mixture may seem a little dry; knead with your hands to work in remaining dry ingredients and form a soft ball. (If your mixture is too wet, add a little more flour, but it should be just right now.) Roll out on floured waxed paper, sprinkling flour on top, too, into an approximately 12×8 rectangle. Transfer dough to a greased cookie sheet. Make two and a half inch cuts all along the long sides. Spread most of a half-pint jar of apple butter down the center. Criss-cross cut strips of dough over the top and pinch ends to seal. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 25 minutes or till nicely browned on top. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing.
Powdered Sugar Icing:
Combine 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and enough milk (one to two teaspoons) for drizzling consistency.
Who wants some apple butter coffee cake?
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Posted by Suzanne McMinn on September 19, 2008
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:J
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coffee cake: when you criss cross the strips across the top..its not completely covered and sealed right? there are still openings on top right? I am trying to grasp this…I want to make it today….OH our fair is in town….I should make some of your funnel cake today instead of paying 8.00 a plate for it…besides…I made yours SO EASY and DELICIOUS
Tresh in Oklahoma
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I absolutely LOVE apple butter on fresh made buiscuts that is just TASTEY!
And now I’m hungry.
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Jane, a good place to get canning supplies is a hardware store! Check out your local hardware stores to find which ones carry canning supplies (most of them do).
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;o)
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Great post.
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I WILL try the coffecake. But, you know what? I’m going to make a thinned burnt sugar cake icing to drizzle over it. That will be heavenly!
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Can I freeze this recipe for apple butter like I do my homemade strawberry jam and my applesauce?? Inquiring minds want to know.
I enjoy checking your site each morning with my cup of tea!
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BethAnn, yes, you can freeze it, just like with jams!
Lisa, we LOVE Coco!!!
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One suggestion for apple cooking novices. I always cook my apples up like Suzanne with the peels on…they quickly are separated with the food mill, but make sure you cut out the stem end and blossom end. Those are the two areas where sprays (if they aren’t organic) might be lurking. It is easy enough to wash the rest of the apple clean, but those two spots are hard to get at.
That’s the basic way I make apple sauce too, but I make it a bit thinner by using a little more water for cooking…add some cinammon and sugar and you are good to go.
I was thinking of canning peaches this weekend and I suppose some apple butter isn’t far behind.
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I have made apple butter every fall since I was a teenager, even when I had to explain to friends that “No, there isn’t any butter in apple butter.” I find that if you didn’t grow up with apple butter you will either love it or hate it. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.
I’ve updated the way I make apple butter to cope with making it in the kitchen. First, I use almost no sugar. I use apples and cook them down until they are reduced by at least half. That makes the apple butter more expensive if you are buying the apples because apples are more expensive than sugar, but it gives you a really strong apple flavor and it’s probably more healthy. (Frankly, I think sugar is great, but I had more apples than sugar as a broke young bride.)
I peel the apples (because I just love to peel – go figure) and that gives me a chance to use the really scraggly apples that may have some bad spots or bug/worm damage. I cut the apples into chunks and cook them uncovered in my turkey roaster in the oven at about 275 degrees. I add a cup or so of apple juice just to get things started. As the apples cook they release their own juice. It usually takes all night to cook the apples, but you don’t have to stir more than every few hours since the oven heat is so gentle. By moring the house smells wonderful, and you have a thick apple pulp.
For a traditional apple butter I add spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger – or really I just use Chinese 5-Spice which has a good combination of the warm spices). I add a little sugar at the end if I need to mellow the flavor of the apples. The younger set likes the apple butter made with the little red-hot candies. I stir a whole bag into the apple pulp. When the candies melt they add a real cinnamon kick, and tint the apple butter pink.
Another modern-day modification: I use the hand-held blender instead of the food mill to make a smooth apple butter. (You know, the blender that looks like a stick, and sounds like a boat motor.) Then I can some of the apple butter in pint jars for myself, but most of the apple butter goes into 4-8-12 oz jelly jars for Christmas gifts. A basket with apple butter and a bag of homemade biscuit mix makes a gift the recipient can use on Christmas morning! I always had more time than money so I was really creative making baskets of cooking ingredients and implements as gifts.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I just got carried away with one of my favorite topics: Apple Butter!
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Everything looks so yummy I just gained five lbs. I’m due for WW next week.
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Have you thought of selling your Apple Butter Coffee Cake? If it tastes half as good as it looks you could be rich by next month.
Treasure
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The response was, what? no Christmas breakfast? Now, its what we do, and our baskets number about 20. And now its a little boring for us, Christmas morning i love to think of our friends eating scones and applebuttter from us!
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We grew up with apple butter! I think my other family members were more crazy about it than me..I was VERY finicky and hated everything, growing up. I like EVERYTHING NOW, well, pretty much. LOL My mother in law makes that filling and serves it at meals…I call it pie filling, but it is WONDERFUL.
Your recipes look scrumptous as usual and I LOVE rum, in ice cream, cakes, ect.!! In chocolate… :mrgreen:
I would LOVE to pick fresh fruit/veggies..even that sounds so fun…..and you make it so funny, talking about the apples falling on your head! Ha! :fryingpan:
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give to my friends! Very fall like ! Maybe some
Grandmother bread to go with. Suzanne, your Grandmother recipe bread is a winner !
Anne from PA
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I can’t wait to give this a try too.
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Goodluck…
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