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Slow Cooker Apple Butter will make your entire house smell like Autumn. It also makes a great gift for the holidays, or a hostess gift at Thanksgiving. YUMMO!
Autumn is my favorite season of the year. I am a lover of all things fall – the leaves and pumpkins, cozy sweaters and Ugg boots, a roaring fire with a good book and a plate of my No Bake Cookies, I adore it all – especially apple season.
A neighboring city hosts an Apple Butter Festival every October. It’s full of holiday crafts, historical reenactments, and of course, amazing food.
Although I love meandering through the aisles of vendors, I really go for two very important reasons: caramel slathered apples and homemade apple butter.
Unfortunately, I’ve missed this festival two years in a row – last year because I was in San Francisco and this year because I simply forgot about it. I sulked for a hot minute, but decided that I’d get my yearly apple butter fix by making my own in the slow cooker.
What is apple butter?
If you have never had apple butter before, you might be confused by the name.
No, it’s not apple-flavored butter. That would be weird. There’s actually no butter in apple butter at all.
Apple butter is basically just super concentrated, super smooth applesauce. It’s cooked for longer, which gives it that caramelized color and rich apple flavor, but the ingredients are nearly identical.
Apple butter is not just perfect on your morning toast (English muffin bread is my favorite!) or served on Potato Rolls at Thanksgiving, you can even bake with it.
Try subbing in Slow Cooker Apple Butter in place of jam or another fruit filling in crumb bars, such as in my Peach Crumb Bars or Raspberry Bars recipes. Or try it in an apple butter cake!
How to make apple butter in a crockpot
At first I was little bit intimidated by the whole homemade fruit butter thing, but really it could not have been easier!
Ingredients you’ll need
Even though the flavors of apple butter are so rich, you’ll be surprised to know that the ingredients are super simple.
You’ll need:
- 6 1/2 pounds apples – peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
I know that 6 1/2 pounds of apples sounds like a lot, but I’ve got a tip for making peeling them a cinch.
Helpful tools
Prepping all of those apples and turning them into homemade apple butter was a cinch thanks to my apple peeler and slow cooker.
The peeler allowed me to peel, core, and slice 6 1/2 pounds of apples in a matter of minutes. I tossed everything into the slow cooker, set the timer for 10 hours and went about my day.
The autumnal scents of apples, cinnamon and vanilla wafted around the whole place for an entire day, which improved my mood immensely. I’ll tell you – if you’re having a rough day, just make some slow cooker apple butter.
It’s impossible not to feel at ease with the entire world and people in it when you’ve got these scents enveloping you each time you walk in and out of your kitchen.
Making this recipe
To make this recipe, I tossed the apples in my slow cooker. I then combined the sugars, cinnamon, and spices and tossed this with the apples.
I let the apples simmer away for the allotted 10 hours until the mixture was thick and dar brown, and in the meantime made chili, cornbread, and even prepped my jars for gift giving.
After the 10 hours, I removed the lid and let the apples keep simmering for another 2 hours. This thickens the apple butter even more.
After the second stage of cooking, it was time to puree the apple butter and jar it up! It really is the perfect way to spend a fall Saturday, I’ll tell you that for free.
The result was a delicious, velvety smooth apple butter that definitely rivals any of the jars that I’ve purchased at the Apple Butter Festival and the best part is – I made it myself!
If you don’t have 10 hours on hand to let the apple butter simmer, don’t worry – I also have a recipe for Instant Pot Apple Butter!
Best apples for apple butter
Really you can use any apples you happen to have on hand for apple butter.
Generally speaking, softer varieties of apples such as Fuji, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, or Jonagold work better since they cook down faster.
I used a mix of Granny Smith, Fuji and Honeycrisp in my apple butter, and even the crisper varieties broke down well for a smooth apple butter.
The real key is to use a mix of apples to get the best flavor. You can even customize your Slow Cooker Apple butter by using apple pie spice or even pumpkin pie spice instead of the blend I have here, and you could try Mexican vanilla instead of Madagascar.
It’s really easy to make it your own, and I know your family will love slathering it on toast all year long.
I’ve been told you can preserve this recipe through canning, though I haven’t tried it myself. I’d love to know if you’ve tried!
I hope you enjoy this slow cooker apple butter as much as we do.
What are your favorite fruit butter recipes? What should I try next?
FAQs
Yes! Because the ingredients say “6.5 pounds of apples, peeled and cored,” this means that you peel and core them after weighing them.
This is true for any recipe you read. For example, if a recipe calls for “1 cup pecans, chopped,” you measure the pecans and then chop them. If it reads “1 cup chopped pecans,” you chop and then measure them.
Yes! I recently learned how to can apple butter – it’s much easier than you might think. You won’t need to make any adjustments to the recipe itself before canning because apples are naturally quite acidic.
You can store this slow cooker apple butter in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.
If you choose to freeze it, make sure you leave plenty of room in the jar so that they don’t crack after freezing.
This recipe makes 4 pints (8 cups) of apple butter.
If you want to substitute apple pie spice for the spices listed in the recipe, I would use 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons, depending on how heavily spiced you like your apple butter to be.
Once you peel, core, and slice the 6.5 pounds of apples, they take up quite a bit of space, so I use a 6-quart slow cooker for this recipe. If you only have a smaller slow cooker, I suggest halving the recipe.
Technically no. If you don’t want to spend the time peeling the apples, you may want to run the final apple butter through a fine mesh strainer after pureeing it to make sure it is super smooth.
I prefer to just peel the apples at the beginning and save myself the work at the end, but it’s up to you and what you prefer.
Yes! The only reason I recommend adding the vanilla toward the end of the recipe is because vanilla doesn’t hold up to heat well and the flavor becomes weaker the longer it cooks.
If you do accidentally add the vanilla at the beginning, just add another teaspoon or so at the end to make up for the flavor that was lost while cooking.
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 6 ½ pounds apples peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples and mix well.
- Cook in slow cooker on low for about 10 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.
- Uncover, stir in vanilla and continue cooking uncovered on low for about 2 hours.
- Use an immersion blender to puree the apple butter until smooth.
- Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate for up to two weeks or freeze.
- Serve on breads, muffins, pork chops or just eat it with a spoon.
Video
Notes
- I used a combination of Granny Smith, Fuji and Honey Crisp apples for this recipe.
- The sweetness of your apples will affect how much sugar you will need to add. Adjust according to your apples and preferences.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or freezer for up to 3 months, or learn how to can apple butter if you would like to preserve it for longer.
- Makes 4 pints.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I canned it this morning and it turned out great!
So glad to hear it turned out great! Thanks for leaving your feedback!
-Jamie
Worked well, however I found this way too sweet, in future I would use 1/2 the amount of sugar or less. I used a single heritage apple that tastes somewhere between gala and a Granny Smith.
Is it ok if you accidentally put the vanilla in with all the other ingredients,I didnt realize it was supposed to be later in the recipe
Sure – no problem. :)
You may use Kerr or Ball canning jars. I use 8 oz ones. Don’t fill to the top, leave half inch space for expansion and they freeze beautifully. Look for directions for strawberry freezer jam, it will tell you how to fill the jars.
Thanks for this recipe. I like to play about with the spices – cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and a little ground star anise is lovely, or for a Scandi twist some ground cardamom. I have boil canned this recipe in Ball Mason jars and it has kept a full year – I made about 3 batches and we’ve just opened the last jar. It was perfectly fine.
I’ve made I don’t know how much apple butter and I never peel the apples. After they’re done cooking I put it in my Ninja blender and all the skins disintegrate. Makes it much quicker not peeling plus you get all the goodness from the peels.
Thanks for the tip, Deloris!
Made this recipes with granny smith apples
Turned out amazing!
Lisa
So glad to hear you love it, Lisa!
What is Apple butter you say? …for me it is something that made my homesickness that much more palpable when I relocated to Los Angeles about 12 years ago now from Alabama. There we have the best jarred version in my opinion, which is ‘Bama’ brand Apple butter. So thank you for this recipe. I can now try to make my own to save off homesick blues. But where may I ask is this festival for which you speak? That sounds like a great time to me full of yummy back home styled tastes.
@Tosha M Morrison, My mom always bought the Bama brand. So good
I don’t know what I could have done wrong. It was so sweet it was nauseating. I used 7 lbs of apples. I put 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white. I used red apples then tried adding 4 large Granny Smith. added more apples to bring down the sweet. I added juice from 1/2 lemon and then 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. I checked and most recipes called for sugar so why was mine sickening sweet! I had to dump it.
@Lois grissom, I didn’t use any sugar and it came out great. It depends on how sweet your apples are. Next time you make it, start with no sugar and add a little at a time until it is the sweetness you like.
This recipe was EXCELLENT!!! I did cut the sugar in half (I don’t like sweets) and kept the skins on for texture. No need to blend, after all that time they just fell apart. Have 5 gallons of small green apples, will probably get about 25 16-ounce Mason jars of apple butter. PERFECT!!
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, Jason! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your feedback!
-Jamie
@Jason Rusk, Thank you for commenting. I have a box of small apples to use and was really hoping I wouldn’t have to peel them all or dirty another appliance. When I make tomato jam I leave the peel on as well and find the added texture nice.