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Apple Butter

Name: Apple Butter
Yield: Makes about 1 1/2 cups
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

Chevy Chase helps Martha make a healthy school lunch for kids using seasonal fruit: apple butter.

Source: The Martha Stewart Show, September Fall 2007

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Yield

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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Reviews

158

How would you rate this recipe?

158

MS10387065

28 OCT, 2017

I really wanted this to work out. This recipe absolutely does not work as written. After 3.5 hours in the oven, it comes out as applesauce. I had to dump the ingredients in the slow cooker and after 13 hours on low then another 2 on high, it's still not there yet but I thoroughly give up. It smells good, it tastes pretty good and as much as I'd love to make my own, man, I am not spending that much time, gas, and electricity to end up with less than 16 oz. of apple butter. That's not even done yet. It'd be cheaper just buy it instead.
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briely

9 DEC, 2013

This apple butter is delicious in the end, but it was a two day process. I doubled the recipe and cooked it in the oven in two baking pans, stirring as the directions suggest. After 5 hours, the apple butter had thickened, but not enough. I covered it and put it in the fridge. The next day, it took another 5 hours to thicken to the right spreadable consistency. Six and a half pounds of apples resulted in 16 oz of apple butter. It's yummy, but I wish I produced at least twice as much!
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Kaitlynsmomma

28 AUG, 2012

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.
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Mybobba

27 APR, 2011

Could this be made in a crockpot.? Also could this be processed in jars to keep?
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JandImom

23 FEB, 2011

Dear Hk5 - I think that sometimes it's enough to make something from scratch in this day
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Hk5

24 OCT, 2008

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
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