Apple Butter
- Total Time
- 3 to 5 hours, depending on method
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:About 4 cups
- 4pounds apples (about 10 to 12 medium), washed, unpeeled, uncored, cut into 1-inch chunks
- ½cup apple cider vinegar
- 3allspice berries (optional)
- 2cinnamon sticks (optional)
- 12-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced (optional)
- 1star anise pod (optional)
- 1¼cups granulated sugar
- 1cup light brown sugar
- Small pinch kosher salt
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
320 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 83 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 73 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 21 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Combine apples, vinegar, allspice berries (if using), cinnamon sticks (if using), ginger (if using), star anise pod (if using) and 4 cups water in a large, heavy bottomed pot over high heat. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are completely softened and the liquid has reduced by half, 30 to 40 minutes. (Some pieces of apple might float at first; they will sink and become submerged as they soften.) Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- Step 2
Leaving behind allspice berries, cinnamon sticks and star anise pod, pass the apples through a food mill. (Alternatively, working in batches, ladle apples into a strainer or colander, and using a ladle, wooden spoon or spatula, press apples to pass pulp through, leaving behind seeds and skin.)
- Step 3
To finish on the stovetop: Place apple pulp in the same large, heavy-bottomed pot, add granulated sugar and light brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick, glossy and a deep golden brown (somewhere between honey and molasses), 2 to 2½ hours. (Around the 1½-hour mark, things will start to bubble rather violently. Stirring constantly will help, but expect, and be careful of, a few splatters.) To test the thickness, spoon a bit onto a plate: The mixture should set almost immediately with no spreading or wateriness. If it’s not there yet, cook another 8 to 10 minutes and test again. When the desired consistency is reached, season with kosher salt.
- Step 4
To finish in the oven: Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place apple pulp in a 9-inch by 13-inch (3-quart) baking dish, add granulated sugar and light brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Place in oven and let cook, stirring every 30 minutes or so, until mixture is thick, glossy and a deep, golden brown color (somewhere between honey and molasses), 3 to 3½ hours. To test the thickness, spoon a bit onto a plate: The mixture should set almost immediately with no spreading or wateriness. If it’s not there yet, cook another 20 to 30 minutes and test again. When the desired consistency is reached, season with kosher salt.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Carroll
Pushing this through a sieve is onerous, messy and inefficient. If you don’t have a food mill, peel and core the apples, put the peels and cores in a square of cheese cloth and cook with the apples. The recipe itself is delicious!!!
Judy
I made a similar recipe in the crock pot entirely. Just stirred periodically during a long day simmering.
Maggie
This recipe was wonderful. However, I think it called for far too much sugar. I only used the brown sugar and negated the granulated sugar. It was the perfect sweetness for me.
Nancy
All those people asking how to store it. It should be canned in a water bath canner. 15 minutes or so in the canner, read the Blue Book. That adds maybe a half hour to the cooking time, mostly sterilizing jars and waiting for water to boil, which can be done concurrently. It will last a year minimum if it is done properly. I know people who can apple butter by the dozens of jars in the fall.
Keith
It is extremely unnecessary to add this much water just to boil it away. Apples soften in about 15 minutes and are full of liquid. They should never be floating on water. 2 cups of water max.
CharlieH
I would suggest putting the whole spices in a piece of muslin/cheesecloth - much easier than having to fish them out of the hot apples!
Bill Hooson
Use an assortment of apples, my favorite is Macintosh, Red Delicious, & Honeycrisp, but I will also use Winesap, Gala, Cortland and Lady Pink. If you like the way an apple tastes it will make good apple butter. I taste after the apples have cooked down before I use any sweetener. And the only sweetener I use is dark amber maple syrup. I also add a generous pinch of salt. I remember making this as a kid in West Virginia in a huge copper pot over a wood fire, stirring with a long wooden paddle.
Ben
I’ve made this in the oven twice now and both times it has taken much closer to 5 hours. End product is always worth the long haul, though. Awesome with latkes! Plus it’s a great way to use up excess fruit and turn it into something really luxurious and rich.
Jane B
Always nice to see different recipes for favorites! I use a mixture of seconds, and never put sweetening in. I let the sweetness of the apples do all the work. If you can the apple butter it will last all year without refrigeration.
Mackenzie
- no brown sugar and only 2/3 cup white sugar. Plenty sweet for me! - cinnamon, cloves, and ginger for spice because that’s what I had. - cored the apples and left skins on. After step two, removed cinnamon sticks and cloves and ran the apples and ginger through the food processor. Finished with step three. Delicious results. Would recommend!
J T
How does one finish making it in the oven? Was the oven method (referenced in the intro) inadvertently omitted?
Kristina
Add a couple of NM green chiles and cinnamon to the stewing apples in stage 1 (leaving out other spices), and it's a tasty New England-meets-New Mexico treat!
Abigail L
I only used the brown sugar, not the white. The oven method was great! I couldn’t mess with the food mill so I cored the apples but didn’t peel, and smooshed them thru my colander. I also used 1 1/2 C of apple juice and 2 1/2 C of water. (Guessing this was why I didn’t need all the sugar. Next time I might even use only half the brown sugar and no white sugar.).
Nancy
I've made apple butter every fall for a few years. The was a restaurant when I was a little girl that served apple butter with RyKrisp crackers instead of bread and butter. My father would give it to me and my three siblings to keep us quiet til the Fried Chicken arrived. I found a wonderful recipe for making it is a crock pot. The house smells heavenly all day long! I will be trying it with the whole apple next year. #Eatons #ArcadiaCA
JRussell
Growing up, my dad had a cider mill and make an apple butter without sugar. It was my favorite -- much more tart and clean-tasting. I don't have his recipe, but I am going to experiment without sugar.
Bike Walk Bake Barb
I tried the "cores and all" method to extract the apple flesh that otherwise goes to waste. This resulted in a lot of white threads in the puree, likely from the toughest part of the core. Ran it through a food mill with the smallest plate, which didn't get it all out. Tried the food processor metal blade; threads just whirl around and don't break down. Smooshed it through a sieve using the back of a soup ladle and finally got to the silky texture this is supposed to have, minus the threads.
Rob
I made this tonight and it turned out well, but for the future I'd like some clarification. In step two it tells you to discard the whole spices and turn the apples into pulp, but doesn't mention the remaining spiced/vinegared water. I discarded it, Was that the right choice?
Spruha
I don't have a food mill or a large colander and no cheesecloth, so boiled the cores and skins separately and decanted the water into the main cored and peeled apple chunks. It worked! Just adjust the amount of water in the recipe to include this water.
Ruth
The tips here to use less water, put the cores and peels in cheesecloth if you don't have a food mill, and omit granulated sugar were all good ones. I also held onto the cores/peels while they cooled down, squeezed out the liquid into a small pot, reduced it somewhat, and added it to the apple pulp. Finally, since I was using some nice Winesaps from the CSA, I tried it without spices or vinegar, and think this was definitely the right call - flavor is clear, vibrant & tangy.
Zack
I agree with cutting back on the water. In the oven, it took a long time! I had to stop a couple times to leave the house, so I ended up simmering it on the stovetop for a while the next day, and still had to skim off some of the sugary liquid that rose to the top.
Susan
About 3 - 3.5 hours. Finish with 2 T. butter stirred in while hot. Excellent!! I probably reduced it by a bit more than half. Yummy warm on vanilla ice cream!
Kate
I also went the cheesecloth route. AND I substituted cider for some of the water. This is the second time I made it to use in the Apple Cider Whoopie Pies in this app.
Shoshana
More apples, less sugar
Helena
Reduced water and initial cooking time. Cored but didn’t peel the apples; once softened threw it, skins and all, into the high speed blender then back to the stovetop. Used rave apples and only about a scant 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Put the cinnamon sticks back in for stage 2. Perfect.
Jill Helmer
Caution. Don’t add the sugar until the apples have cooked down and been processed through the strainer. I missed that on my first go around. 9-17-2023
Mary
I made both parts of this recipe in my crockpot during a heatwave, which turned it from a slog over a stove/using an oven on a horribly hot day, into a start-it and forget it project! Passing the apples twice through a $17 food mill I found at the hardware store was an extra bonus for ease!
Kathleen
Love the idea of star anise and ginger in apple butter, but prefer less sugar. I'm trying to adapt this recipe to cook in an Instapot, so it will prequire less prep time. Plan to use gravenstein apples from our tree, as well as the seasonings in this recipe, but will reduce the sugar to 1.5 cups brown sugar (omitting the white sugar) and use one of the online apple butter recipes I found to guide me through the liquid balance and other steps. Hoping this works, as I need a quicker recipe.
karen d
2 cups of water not 4. Only used light brown sugar, omitted the white sugar. Added the brown sugar in step 1 by mistake, it didn’t seem to make a difference, as this came out wonderfully! Baked at 300 in a Dutch oven for three hours. I’ve never been a big fan of apple butter, I’ll be making this each fall from now on! Going to use in a ginger apple cake and on latkkes.
karen d
I used 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup Strawberry Rosé vinegar by the brand Acid League. Wowza soooooooo good!!!
Kirsten
I thought it was great just as described - did the oven method. Used a sieve and did not core or peel. I am so happy to find a recipe to use all my apples without having to peel them!
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