Archives for 2011

Apple-Pear Butter
by Mackenzie at The Centsible Family

Prep time should be about 30 minutes and will cook for 11-13 hours so be sure to start it early in the morning or leave it on low during the night.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 pounds apples and pears – peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 3 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.  Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well.
2. Cover and cook on high 1 hour.
3. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.
4. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.
   Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze.

Notes About Recipe:

•  I adjusted the sugar down to 3 cups because 4 cups was too sweet for my first batch. You can also substitute the sugar with honey instead and that will help with the sweetness.
• Also I added 4 Bartlet pears to my recipe just to give it a different flavor and used two different types of apples as well.
• Be very careful when cooking this recipe. I learned the hard way that you CAN overcook the sugar as my first batch had a layer of burnt sugar on the bottom of the cooker. However, by spooning the butter out I was able to leave the burnt butter in the cooker and only use the good butter.
• Also, as you cook the recipe it may look more like Apple Soup then butter. It reduced about 75% for me (which is probably why I had the burnt sugar layer) but it will be very liquidy while the slow cooker is turned on. Even at the “Keep Warm” setting it was still more liquid then butter…making me believe I cooked it wrong. So I turned off the cooker and let it sit over night and the next morning it was perfect, almost jam consistency. Since this recipe depends on what kind of sweetener you use, what type of apples you use, etc. the thickness and consistency may vary.

Recipe was adapted from All Day Apple Butter at AllRecipes.com. The above picture of the canned butter is from their website as well.

Thanks, The Centsible Family!