Apple butter is a sweet, silky spread made with slow-cooked apples and spices. Think applesauce, but thicker and much more concentrated. It’s similar to the consistency of jam with a rich and intense apple flavor. In this easy apple butter recipe, we use a slow cooker to slowly cook fresh apples until really soft. Use homemade apple butter to spread onto toast, English muffins and biscuits, or use it as a topping for pancakes, waffles, and oatmeal. For even more fall-inspired flavors, see our homemade pumpkin butter.
Key Ingredients
Apples: You can’t make apple butter without a bunch of fresh apples. We’ll need 8 to 9 medium apples for this recipe. We typically reach for crisp apples when making apple butter (just like when we make applesauce or apple pie). Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady apples are all great options. More tart apples, like Granny Smith, are also excellent in this recipe. Brown Sugar: Since we are looking for a concentrated jam-like quality for our apple butter, we need some sugar. Brown sugar keeps things sweet and adds a caramelized note, too. Honey: I love the floral notes honey adds to this apple butter. If you prefer to make vegan apple butter, use maple syrup as a substitute. Hard Apple Cider: Here’s where our recipe is a bit different from other apple butter recipes we have seen online. Hard apple cider adds extra flavor and a bit of bitterness, which is so delicious when matched with the sweet apples, sugar, and honey. If you’d prefer to leave this out, we have suggestions in the recipe tips section below. Use one you enjoy as the flavors will concentrate as it cooks. Chinese Five Spice: Apples and warm spices like cinnamon were meant for each other (especially in the Fall!). You can use cinnamon in our recipe, but for a bit more spice and flavor, use Chinese Five Spice, which is a blend of Chinese cinnamon, star anise, cloves, Sichuan (Szechuan) peppercorns, and fennel. Pumpkin pie spice is also an excellent idea.
How to Make Apple Butter
First, prepare your apples. Core and chop them. There is no need to peel apples when you make apple butter. The peel adds color and flavor. Then, combine the apples with brown sugar and Chinese five spice. I like to toss them well in a large bowl. This is a crockpot apple butter so, add the sugar and spiced apples to your slow cooker (ours is a 6-quart model, but smaller models should also work). Pour the honey and hard apple cider around the apples, then give everything a good stir. Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 10 hours. By simmering the apples over very low heat, they almost melt into themselves, making the apple butter extra silky. After 10 hours, the apples are soft and cooked down. Uncover the slow cooker, turn to HIGH heat, and cook, with the lid left off, for 2 hours. This step helps to concentrate the apples even more and ensures a thick, spreadable apple butter. Finally, blend! We use an immersion blender in the slow cooker, but you can always transfer the apples (and any juices) to a blender and blend there. The hard cider in this recipe makes slightly thinner apple butter. We love the flavor it adds and especially love the slight bitterness from the hard cider. If you find that your apple butter is too thin after cooking for our recommended times, don’t worry; we have provided tips in the recipe and tips section below. 1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar 1 tablespoon Chinese Five Spice, see notes 1/2 cup (165 grams) honey 1 (12-ounce) bottle hard cider, see notes Pinch salt, optional 2In a large bowl, toss the apples with brown sugar and Chinese Five Spice, then add to your slow cooker. 3Pour over the honey and hard apple cider. Season with a pinch or two of salt, if desired (I almost always do). 4Cover and cook on LOW for 10 hours. 5Uncover and cook on high for another 2 hours to reduce the liquid around the apples. 6Use an immersion blender to puree the apples until silky and smooth. If the apple butter seems thin, don’t worry; you can thicken it easily. Continue to cook uncovered in the slow cooker for another hour or until you are happy with the texture (see tips below for fixing runny apple butter). Keep in mind that it will thicken slightly as it cools.
