Thursday, November 25, 2010

Apple Butter

OK...here it is!  This is from a little lady we always stayed with  in Goshen, Indiana on choir tour. Her Apple butter rivals Cracker Barrel's and Silver Dollar City's.  It is my favorite, and I am picky about my apple butter!  She just bought apple sauce at the store, & it doesn't matter if it's a major brand or not.  She washes the jars that it comes in...yep, you heard me...and puts it right back into those same jars!  With those same lids!! And they seal.  They really do!  (And if they don't, well...those are the jars that you stick in the refrigerator and eat!   We rarely ever have one that doesn't seal.  You just wash the jars, and have them good and hot, (I put them in the oven for a few minutes on a cookie sheet tray, this gets them to the temp. that they need to be, plus it sanitizes them too.)

4   50oz. jars of apple sauce
5   lbs. brown sugar
3  tbs. cinnamon
1  tbs. cloves
1 1/2  cups apple cider vinegar

Put these ingredients in a large roaster pan.
Stir well, and bake in 350 degree oven for 3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
Put into hot clean jars, and top with the lids that you have cleaned, and warmed in a pan of hot water. 
Close tightly, and leave sitting on a towel, out of drafts.  When they cool, they should seal. (you know, the tops will sink down in the middle.) Just make sure that you do not touch the middle of the lid while they are
trying to seal...you want to REALLY know that they have sealed on their own, and you cannot know
that If you've poked it down yourself!   
Easy, Easy, Easy!

You can make these pretty by washing off the labels (you might need some Goof Off) and you can tie a pretty ribbon around the top.  You also can put this apple butter in regular canning jars that are cleaned and prepared the same way.
I got the notion a couple of years ago after tasting Williams Sanoma's Pumpkin butter, that it could also
be made the same way, with canned pumpkin, adjusting the spices (adding ginger to the mix), and
tasting it to adjust the flavors before it was baked.  I haven't tried it as of yet, but I know it could be
done!  And man, wouldn't that be good?????  

1 comment:

  1. Just finished making this recipe. I didn't know if I should use all natural unsweetened applesauce or sweetened applesauce so I went with the all natural unsweetened since there was so much brown sugar being added and it worked out great! I had 11 out of 12 jars pop so I would say that's pretty good. Thanks for the recipe, Dara! This is my first of many recipes of yours I'll be sharing with my family!

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