Apple Butter Recipe

"Can I please have some more 'apple jam'" said Michael, age 6.

Apple Butter

The Ingredients:

--apples. 14 large apples fit in my 6.5 quart crockpot, peeled and cored
--2 tsp cinnamon
--2 cups white sugar (see note below)
--1 cup brown sugar (see note below)
--1/2 tsp cloves
--1 T vanilla

The Directions:

This is a 2-day process. Quarter the apples and take out the core. Put all of the quartered apples into your crockpot. Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. When the cooking is done, mash the apples with a fork. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.

Cover again and cook on low for 6 hours. If you prefer your apple butter to be velvety-smooth, blend with an immersion blender, or blend in small batches in a traditional blender. This made enough for 3 jars of apple butter.

Looks like cinnamon, tastes like fall. My across the street neighbor made this 'apple butter' (Michael calls it 'apple jam') for us, and we all LOVE it! Thank you, Tyla!

Since I had never had this before, and now I am 'in love' I looked up more info:

Wikipedia's Definition:

Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than applesauce. Apple butter was a popular way of using apples in colonial America, and well into the 19th century. The term "butter" refers to the thick, soft consistency, and apple butter's use as a spread for breads. Typically seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, and other spices, apple butter may be spread on buttered toast, used as a side dish, an ingredient in baked goods, or as a condiment. Apple Butter has also been known to be mixed with vinegar while cooking to provide a small amount of tartness to the usually sweet apple butter. The Pennsylvania Dutch often include apple butter as part of their traditional seven sweets and seven sours dinner table array.In areas of the American South, the production of apple butter is a family event, due to the large amount of labor necessary to produce apple butter in large quantities. Apple butter is also used on a sandwich to add an interesting flavor, but is not as commonly used as in historical times. Traditionally apple butter was and is prepared in large copper kettles outside. Large paddles are used to stir the apples and family members would take turns stirring.In Appalachia, apple butter was the only type of fruit preserve normally rendered into fruit leather.Black butter on a buttered slice of cabbage loaf. Apple butter can also refer to a new butter variety that has apple butter swirled in a tub with the margarine to provide a creamy texture and a sweet taste.Apple Butter Makin' Days has been held on the courthouse square in **Mount Vernon, Missouri each October since 1967. Apple butter is cooked using century-old methods in huge copper kettles over open fires all day long. Apple Butter Makin' Days.