Apple Butter

Because I was bad and didn't post for a while, here's a sweet and easy treat for you... Forgive me?

Apple butter is a pretty basic recipe, and it epitomizes autumn! I might have mentioned once or twice that I've been longing for fall. Just maybe. One of my co-workers told me today that I looked like fall. I politely thanked him, but in my head I was dancing around and cheering. Mission accomplished!

Apple Butter

9 apples (of a 5-lb bag of Gala apples, I used all but two, mainly because I got tired of peeling and chopping apples)

1/4 cup honey

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

Peel and then chop your apples into small slices (I stopped at Wal-mart on the way home from work yesterday to buy an apple slicer specifically for this purpose - only $3.97).

Of course, you'll have to cut the pieces smaller after the slicer does its job. Transfer all of the apple chunks to your trusty Crock-pot. Spread the seasonings and honey over the top of your apples.

After 2 hours of cooking.

I waited until after cooking for two hours once there was a bit more liquid to mix everything up. However, if you're just going to let the slow-cooker do its thing and not touch it, i.e., overnight or during your work day, go ahead and mix everything now.

Cover and set the slow-cooker on low heat for 8 hours. If your slow-cooker isn't programmable, you can do what my buddy BA does. Get a plug-in timer, set the timer so that the electricity will be supplied for 8 hours, and plug your slow-cooker into that. Genius! This saves you electricity costs, too. And you can use it when you go out of town so it looks like you're still there. Or if you come home after dark and want a light on in your house so you don't trip over things as you make your way to the light switch.

After 8 hours, your apples should look like this:

Use your food processor or blender to blend the soft cinnamon-y apples until smooth. Transfer to jars/storage containers. You're done. The apple butter can cool in the jars and you can spread it on Paleo crackers (recipe to come), or on pork, or even it it by itself. Crazy! If you eat bread, you could have an apple butter sandwich, just replace the almond butter with apple butter, or use both. However, if you're like me and will normally eat apples with a bit of almond butter, I don't recommend exchanging apple butter for almond butter: apple slices with apple butter might be a bit too much apple. You'd be consuming a lot of natural sugars (way more than Paleo-recommended levels)!


Next step: Pumpkin butter! Mmmmm... pumpkin!