Apple Butter

This is such an American autumn institution but I'd never come across it before. I was looking for inspiration for what to do with our apples that were left on the granny smith tree. I made a very nice apple and almond crumble cake (gf) but there was still lots left over.

I am now in love with apple butter!

It ends up looking like a thick caramel and tastes like spiced apple pie filling. Amazing!

There are literally hundreds of recipes out there but this is the one that I used because it was so simple, in the slow cooker:

Roughly 6 pounds good cooking apples (or Granny Smiths)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

They did say add a tablespoon of vanilla extract right at the end of the cooking time, but I didn't do that!

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Mix together the sugars, spices and salt in a bowl.

Peel, core and slice the apples and pop them straight into the slow cooker. Sprinkle over the sugar mix and stir through the apples. Cook on high for 8 hours (some say 10 but 8 was enough) until it's a deep caramel colour.

You want to puree it till it's smooth, I used a stick whizz in it. If it's not thick enough then you can cook it for longer. Pop into jars. It'll keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks and in the freezer for lots longer!

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What to use it for:

A big dollop onto vanilla ice cream and swirl through

With greek yogurt to accompany the apple almond crumble cake

With greek yogurt on top of muesli in the morning