This is the best slow cooker apple butter you’ll ever make, I promise. It’s really hard to find really good apple butter at our local grocery stores. This recipe can be made with or without the cinnamon red hots.
Apples are being picked and delivered to grocery stores in my area at this time. In my humble opinion, the best ones come from Washington State. But maybe that’s because I live in Utah, and those are the best-tasting ones we can buy here.
I remember growing up and making apple butter with my mother from the surplus apples we were given. Of course, back then we didn’t have a slow cooker, but the results are the same. It’s just easier to make it in a slow cooker now because you can prep the ingredients, set it, and forget it. I have this one: a 3-1/2-quart slow cooker.
The house smells heavenly, by the way, with those apples simmering in the slow cooker. I remember making apple pie filling with my daughters, and I can’t find that recipe. The house would smell so good with apples and cinnamon cooking on the stove.
The Best Slow Cooker Apple Butter Ever
Step One
The first step is to grab your slow cooker. You can peel, core, and slice or chop your apples as needed. I like to use an apple peeler. Of course, you can use a good knife to prep the apples as well.
Step Two
Now you cover the apples in sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and red hots. The red hots are optional, but they add a little twist to the apple butter. The finished product looks beautiful in jars, making it an ideal gift.
Step Three
Cover and cook on high for one hour.
Step Four
Continue cooking on low for three to four hours. Your house will smell amazing!
Step Five
Cool slightly, and run the apples through a blender until smooth. Now, place the mixture back into the slow cooker and continue cooking throughout the day. You want it to cook down and thicken up.
Step Six
Remove the excess liquid and place the remaining apple butter in mason jars. This batch will make about 6-8 pints, depending on how many apples you start with.
When cool, place the jars in the refrigerator.
Is your mouth watering yet? Oh my goodness, this is incredibly easy to make, and your neighbors will love it! I say bring on the apples, now.
It’s perfect to spread on your freshly toasted bread.
Slow Cooker Apple Butter Recipe
Apple Butter in a Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 12 cored, peeled, and chopped apples (fill the slow cooker)
- 4 cups sugar
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cinnamon red hots (optional)
Instructions
- Start by filling your slow cooker with your apples.
- Wash, remove stems and cores. Chop or slice apples.
- Cover in sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and red hots. Cook on high for 1 hour.
- Lower the heat and continue cooking for an additional 3 to 4 hours. Run through a blender until smooth.
- Place back in the slow cooker and cook for the remainder of the day (total cooking time about 9 hours).
- In the evening, fill the mason jars and seal. Keep in mind it will thicken as it cools. It will last for about two weeks in the refrigerator.
Which Apples Make The Best Apple Butter?
- Jonathan
- Winesap
- Stayman
- Golden Delicious
- Macintosh
- Gala
- Or any other tasty soft apple. The softer the apple, the quicker it will cook down to make apple butter
Where Did Apple Butter Originate?
Apple butter has been around for a very long time, long before it ever became a favorite in America. Its story begins in the Middle Ages in a region of Europe called Limburg, which today spans parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Monks in that region had large apple orchards, and they discovered that slow-cooking apples into a thick, dark spread was a wonderful way to preserve the harvest. Almost every village in that area ended up with its own apple butter makers.
The tradition made its way to America with settlers, especially the Pennsylvania Dutch, who brought their apple butter recipes with them to the colonies. It quickly became an important part of American homesteading, especially throughout the 1800s, since it gave families a simple and practical way to use up a large apple harvest and store it for the months ahead.
What made apple butter so special in those early days wasn’t just the taste, but the sense of community that came with making it. Old recipes called for boiling cider down by half, then adding bushels of peeled and cored apples, with family members taking turns stirring the pot for many hours at a time. Because it took so much work, families and neighbors often gathered together for the occasion, cooking the apples down in big kettles outside and passing the time with conversation while they took turns at the stirring paddle. It became a beloved fall tradition tied to harvest time, bringing families and communities together.
Apple butter also found commercial success over the years. One well-known food company got its start making apple butter from an old family recipe in the late 1800s, and it became so popular that it helped build the company into the household name it is today.
Yes, that’s Smucker’s. Jerome Smucker started making apple butter from an old family recipe in Orrville, Ohio, in the late 1800s, and it became the company’s first and most popular product, eventually growing into the J.M. Smucker Company known today.
Even though the old-fashioned tradition of standing over a big kettle all day has faded for most home cooks, apple butter has never gone out of style. Today, it’s most loved in the fall, though many families enjoy it year-round. The slow cooker has helped bring this old tradition back into modern kitchens, letting you get that same deep, slow-cooked flavor without standing and stirring for hours.
In many ways, apple butter has stayed popular for hundreds of years, traveling from monastery orchards in Europe to colonial kitchens to modern slow cookers, always cherished as a simple way to turn a big apple harvest into something warm, spiced, and delicious that lasts.
Is This Recipe Safe To Can?
No, it’s not. I’m a Master Canner and Preserver, and I know this recipe isn’t safe to can. If you want to bottle some jars, please look at the recipe in the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning or the Ball Canning Guide.
What’s The Difference Between Apple Butter and Applesauce?
Apple butter and applesauce both start with cooked apples, but they end up quite different from one another. Applesauce is made by cooking apples until they’re soft, then mashing or blending them into a smooth or slightly chunky mixture. It’s usually cooked for a shorter time, which means it retains a lighter color and a milder, more straightforward apple flavor. Applesauce also tends to be thinner and looser in texture, almost like a puree.
Apple butter, on the other hand, takes things much further. It starts out much like applesauce, but it’s cooked low and slow for many hours, whether in a big kettle the old-fashioned way or in a slow cooker today. That long cooking time allows the natural sugars in the apples to caramelize, which gives apple butter its deep brown color and rich, concentrated flavor. The extended cooking also cooks off much of the extra liquid, so apple butter ends up thick and smooth, almost like a spreadable jam, rather than loose like applesauce.
Another difference is in the seasoning. Applesauce is often left plain or lightly sweetened, while apple butter is almost always flavored with warm spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, which give it that cozy, fall-inspired taste people love.
So while applesauce is light, mild, and great for a quick side dish or snack, apple butter is rich, spiced, and thick enough to spread on toast, biscuits, or even use as a filling in baked goods. Both come from the same humble apple, but the extra time and care that go into apple butter are really what set it apart.
Does Apple Butter Contain Butter?
No, it doesn’t. It’s like Peanut Butter; it doesn’t have butter, either. The term butter refers to the thick, spreadable mixture. It’s as simple as that.
Apples: Everything You Need To Know
Final Word
I really hope you try making this slow cooker apple butter. Here’s the deal: we need to prep, but we need to try new recipes whenever we can. Let me know if you’ve made homemade apple butter. I love to hear from you. We need to store water, food, emergency supplies, and know how to cook from scratch.
I’m sure most of you know how to cook from scratch, but many people don’t. We need to teach others. Please keep prepping; we must. May God bless this world, Linda
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