How to make Patty’s Old Fashioned Apple Butter
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Here’s a recipe given to Annessa’s family by a dear friend more than 40 years ago. It lets the flavors of the apples shine, along with their nutrients!
Ingredients
- 12-14 tart apples: Jonathan, Winesap or Red Rome
- 2 cups apple juice or cider
- Per 2 cups cooked fruit:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Wash, quarter and core apples, but do not peel. The skin contains nutrients you don’t want to lose.
- Combine apples and juice in large stovetop pot cooking until the fruit is tender.
- Put through a blender, measure cooked apples and return to the stovetop pot.
- For each pint (2 cups) of cooked fruit add scant: 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon all spice and ½ teaspoon cloves.
- Stir well, cover and cook until bubbly. Turn down the heat and simmer until thickened, stirring often. Allow the apple butter to cool down before putting into jars.
Notes from Patty
We have learned to adjust the seasonings depending on our tastes and the tartness of the apples. Personally we don’t want it too sweet because it can hide the other flavors. Cloves can be kind of overwhelming, if not adjusted carefully. It is better to have less of what you like for the flavor so you can adjust later. Another option is to use a slow cooker.
Our tradition is to go to apple orchards in the North Georgia Mountains in October and make the apple butter before Thanksgiving to give to friends and family for the holiday season, which is why we always double the recipe.
Stan and Patty Wenck