Apple Butter

My mom came over and helped us strip down the apple tree. We got the last of the apples off and into the kitchen, then mom pruned down the tree as much as possible, and M helped bag up the green waste. You can see the fence through the tree now, and there are a few stragglers left at the very heights, but we're otherwise done with apple season.

Mom took away a bag full of apples, and Mary (M's Mom) sent us her apple butter recipe to try. I gave it a chance, even though I'm not a fan of apple butter -- or thought I wasn't a fan. This stuff is tasty. And easy! Between letting the crock pot run overnight, and using the food mill to seed and skin the resulting sauce, I think there was more prep work in canning the butter than making it. Then again, maybe I only think that because I'm pretty much on autopilot while chopping apples now.

While we were out looking for canning jars -- which are harder to find than you'd think -- I got a cheap fat quarter to cut up for fabric lid covers. They look so much cuter with a little (red) gussying up. (I updated the picture now that we have some 8oz jelly jars too -- K, 5 Sept).

On the front lines of the kitchen counter, we're down to nine apples. Two go into muffins for the week, so that brings us to seven. We've got a second batch of apple butter in the crock pot that I hope to use for seasonal/holiday gifts, and don't forget the twenty cups of apple sauce. We apple-wood smoked some pork chops at dinner, too, to use up some of the thickest cuttings. When I measure out the rub recipe, I'll put that up too.

Mary's Overnight Apple Butter -- very slightly adapted
Makes 4 pints.

**5 lbs apples, cut into large chunks
1 1/2 C. packed brown sugar
3/4 C. apple juice or cider
1 T. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a 5-qt or larger electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours or until apples are very tender. Ladle apples a cup or two at a time into a hand-cranked food mill and process to remove skins and seeds. Repeat until all apple mixture has been run through the food mill. Return to slow cooker and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Ladle apple butter into clean hot jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Seal. Process in a boiling water bath canner 10 minutes for pints, 5 minutes for half pints.

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**Moment of truth: I didn't count, measure or weigh the apples. I kept cutting until our slow cooker was almost full-to-the-brim, and then I dumped in the rest of the ingredients and hoped there was enough head space for all of them. After 30 minutes, I gave them a quick stir. At 1hr, I gave them another stir. Then I left them alone until the next morning. Ours took 2 hours to thicken up enough after going through the food mill, but the extra time gave me a chance to boil the jars. Our first batch filled 4 pint jars, with enough left over to spread generously on a couple pieces of stale ciabatta.