Greetings and Crock Pot Apple Butter!

Hello and welcome to Michigan, Homemade. I believe in local produce, saving money, supporting local business and blooming where you're planted. I welcome you to read about life in the heart of Michigan, where I plant, cook, bake and create a place for me and my husband, Matthew.

For my first post, I thought I would share my first (solo) experience cooking and canning apple butter. In case you didn't know, Michigan had a stellar apple crop this year (2013). As much as last year's crops suffered due to the weather and an untimely frost, it was a blessing in disguise! The energy the precious apple trees had been creating to turn those gorgeous apple blossoms into fruits was stored when the buds died. That meant that this year's crop got a huge boost from that stored energy and, therefore, an awesome harvest of around 30 million bushels! *Go Apples!*

So, to begin, I picked apples from my mother's friend's apple tree. The apples are a Macintosh x Jonathan (sometimes called Jonamac) hybrid. After picking totes and 5-gallon buckets FULL of apples, we trucked back home and stored them in the basement until we could process them. I should have taken more pictures-- lesson learned! When I finally got time (between work, classes and everything else), I cut the bad spots and quartered the apples. Make sure to make the rest of the process a little easier on yourself and cut around the core. Yeah, yeah, it takes more time, but it's much easier later on!

Once the apples were prepared, I loaded about half of them into my mom's huge soup pot and added apple juice (until there was about 1/2"-1" of juice at the bottom of the pot). The juice (you could also substitute water if your apples are sweeter) is to help keep your apples from scorching or getting stuck to the bottom. I had my pot at medium heat.

MAKE SURE TO STIR, STIR, STIR!!

Don't load too many apples into your pot, because you'll need to be able to stir them to keep from scorching. As your apples cook down and get soft, you can add more apples and continue stirring until they are all soft and warm and delicious-smelling. Once they're at this point, you can use a food mill to remove the skin and any hard bits of core that may have been missed in the cutting process (hey, it happens!).

Place your food mill over a large bowl and spoon in the apples a couple scoops at a time. Turn your mill and make sure to clean off the blade by turning the opposite way every few turns. Continue this process until you have all your apples through the mill. You will have a bowl of what looks like applesauce.

Add seasonings until you have your desired apple butter taste. However, remember that seasonings will bloom with heat and sometimes get STRONGER after they've been in your slow cooker! In order of quantity, I added:

Cinnamon
Allspice
Nutmeg

You can also add ginger and clove, but I don't care for those flavors, so I left them out. You can use a combination of any of these spices, depending on your taste preference.

TASTE, TASTE, TASTE!

Make sure to taste the "applesauce" BEFORE you put it in the crock pot. Make sure that it isn't too sweet/tangy/etc. for your taste. If it's too tart, add some brown sugar (not granulated/white sugar). The molasses helps sweeten and round out the flavor from really tart apples.

Looks good; tastes great; must be ready!

I LOVE the deep, rich brown color of apple butter, which can be easily achieved by using your handy, dandy crock pot! Empty the contents of your bowl into your crock and put it on low. Leave the lid off, because the goal is to cook out the water in the apples until you get a thick, dark, DELICIOUS result. Depending on your crock pot, it can take up to 12 hours on low to cook down to the color and a thick consistency (as shown).

Before you can the apple butter, taste it and do any necessary finishing touches. If you can't can the apple butter right away, it's safe to leave it in the crock and put it in the fridge. However, MAKE SURE TO HEAT THE APPLE BUTTER BACK UP BEFORE YOU CAN IT!

To can, I did an open water bath, leaving 1/4" headspace and using a hot pack method. Easy peasy!

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all enjoyed this post and tune in for more in the future!

Remember: no matter where you are, keep it homemade.