Apple Butter

The following is a comment I posted to Allison of Scarcity and Abundance a few days ago. She had a post about bread and I suggested a particular wheat bread recipe that I love and I put cream cheese and pumpkin butter on it when it's cooled. My little B loves it. Allison asked for a recipe and I found this:

My Betty Crocker's Old Fashioned cookbook has a recipe for Honey Apple Butter. It could be easily converted.
1 quart sweet apple cider
8 cups pared, cored and quartered cooking apples (about 3 pounds)
1 lemon; peeled, sliced and seeded
1 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Heat cider to boiling in large dutch oven. Boil uncovered until reduced to 2 cups - about 15 minutes. Add apples and lemon. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 1 hour until apples are soft. Mash with potato masher or ricer to remove all lumps. Stir in honey, sugar and cinnamon. Heat to boiling, reduce heat, simmer about 1 1/2 hours until no liquid separates from pulp. Pour mixture into hot sterilized jars leaving headspace. Wipe rims, seal with boiling water bath or steamer. Cool. Makes about 5 half pints.
(My grandma taught me to make it in the oven in a giant roaster pan. We would gather a pailful of apples that had dropped from the trees and remove the bruises, birdpecks, and wormholes. She let it bake all day stirring occasionally, and it made considerably more than 5 half pints.)

If I were converting, I would probably add some pumpkin pie spice instead of just cinnamon. I would also cook the pumpkin in water if I didn't have any apple cider. I might even try adding some cream at the end of the simmering process to a small portion that would be used immediately. (Make sure pumpkin isn't boiling when you add cream or it will curdle.) You can also make pear butter, but you don't have to boil the pears initially for as long as the apples if they are yellow and ripe.

Wednesday I made bread using the water drained from boiling the potatoes from Monday night's dinner. I was interrupted in the middle of the second rising with an errand that couldn't wait, so I just put the loaves in the fridge until I returned. You only need to wait 10 minutes to put it into the oven, and that's about how long it takes the oven to heat. It is a miracle to stir up a few ingredients that the earth yields up and together they live and grow and nourish. The loaves turned out divine. I am grateful for such simple and delicious pleasures in this life!

February 27, 2009 8:45 PM