Apple Butter
Chevy Chase helps Martha make apple butter, a healthy school lunch for kids made with seasonal fruit. Part 1.
Apple Butter
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Apple Butter
Chevy Chase helps Martha make apple butter, a healthy school lunch for kids made...
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The Martha Stewart Show, September Fall 2007
- Yield Makes about 1 1/2 cups
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 pounds assorted apples, peeled, cored, and cut into quarters
- 3 cups apple cider
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt butter and add apples. Cook apples until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add cider, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Let simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until soft, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mash softened apples with a potato masher. Remove from heat and add lemon juice, lemon zest, and cinnamon. Using an immersion blender, puree mixture until smooth.
- Pour apple mixture evenly into a baking dish. Transfer to oven and bake, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Let cool before serving. Apple butter may be kept, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 5 days.
The directions need an edit. After baking 3 hours, mine still resembled applesauce. If you watch the video, Martha clearly states to leave it in the oven overnight to finish reducing. Mine was much thicker in the morning, but my oven had turned off and there was a skin over the top of the butter due to not being stirred all night.
Could this be made in a crockpot.? Also could this be processed in jars to keep?
Dear Hk5 -
I think that sometimes it's enough to make something from scratch in this day
No--none of these are old-fashioned apple butter. Nor is almost anything else online. This is our year for making apple butter again and after looking to see what tips are out there, it's clear that no one is making it the way it SHOULD be made. We use a 15 and 20-gallon copper kettle, prep the apples the day before, then cook the apples over an open fire all day, stirring to get just the right texture, adding a family recipe of sugar and spices. This makes a beautiful dark, thick apple butter--perfect for homemade bread