Apple Butter

I love fall!  I love the crisp air, and APPLES!  Today, I decided to conquer a favorite of mine - APPLE BUTTER!

Here are the ingredients for the apple butter:

6 lbs of Jonathan apples
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon all spice

To begin, I used my handy dandy apple/core/slicer gadget from Pampered Chef.  I love this tool!  It makes peeling and slicing apples so easy.

When the apples are peeled and sliced, put in a sauce pan and cover with water.  Simmer on medium low heat for 1 1/2 hours.

Strain and puree the apples.  I pureed my apples in my food processor.  Put the pureed apples into an oven safe pot.  I used my dutch oven.  Add the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, cloves and all spice. 

Stir gently.  Cover and chill for 3-4 hours, or overnight.

When you have chilled the pureed apples, put it in the oven and bake for 3 1/2-4 hours.  Bake on 300, stirring every hour.  As it cooks, it will darken.

As the apple butter is baking, you need to process your jars for canning.  Put a large stock pot on and boil water.  Put your canning jars in the dishwasher.  This will ensure that the jars are sterilized and that they will not crack when you put the apple butter in.  In a separate pot, boil some water for the lids and rims.

When the apple butter is cooked, ladle it into your canning jars.  Leave 1/2 inch head space.  Wipe the rims before putting the lids on.  Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

As you take the jars out of the pot, the jars will start to cool.  As the jars cool, the lids will vacuum seal, creating a popping sound.  You will know that the jar is processed correctly if when you push on the lid, it doesn't give.  If you can push the lid up and down, the jar didn't process correctly.  Simply put the jar in the refrigerator and use that one first.

This batch made 7, 1/2 pint jars.

Enjoy!