Apple Butter

Ok, with yesterday being September first, I went ahead and made apple butter.  It seemed wrong to do it still in August, with it being  a seasonal thing, but I had been dreaming about it since June.  It's super simple to make, and cheaper and more delicious than the stuff you find at the store.  The only thing I would have done differently is make a larger batch.  The apples reduced significantly and towards the end I had some scorching on the sides that I had to kind of scrape off.  Overall the process was a success.

You'll need:
About 7 large apples or 10 medium apples of your choice
(I used Granny Smith and Gala)
About 3/4 - 1 cup of brown sugar, depending on your sweetness preference
(I don't really like overly sweet things, so I might have gone with even a little less than that, but feel free to add more if you want)
1.5 tsp of apple pie spice
and I totally would have scraped a vanilla bean if I had had one.  And wasn’t broke.

Peel the apples really well (we want this smooth like butter, with no chunks of peel) and core.  Dice into small pieces, because the larger they are, the longer they take to break down.  Put into a slow cooker crock and add the rest of the ingredients.  Put it on low for eight hours.  It's nice to do this before bed, so when you wake up the house smells like a Glade candle and you can have fresh apple butter for breakfast.  Put it in containers and store in the fridge for up to a month.

If you don't have a crock pot you could probably make it in a sauce pan, although I haven't tried.  I would add about 1/4 cup of water and bring it to a simmer over medium heat and then turn it down to low, checking occasionally, until it’s the desired consistency.

If its too chunky for your liking, feel free to run it through your food processor or go over it with a potato masher.

It tastes awesome on toast with peanut butter, or when dipped with pretzels.  I also saw a recipe for apple butter cheesecake, which kind of needs to happen soon.