A friend on social media said it best. “I feellt like it was ‘summer and peaches’ and then the next minute its ‘fall and apples’.”
For the past two months, I cranked out several different peach cobbler recipes. Some being more thrown together for a quick afternoon snack/bake. Others were more sophisticated, well as sophisticated as a cobbler can be. But those bakes are behind me. Shelved until next summer when the peaches are back in season. No, my baking now is looking to pay attention to seasons and what foods each one gifts to us. Early fall sees the rise of PSL (pumpkin spice lattes), and while I enjoy pumpkin pie as much as anyone, right now, apples are my go-to produce. And we’ve got plenty of orchards in Vermont for me to wet my whistle.
A few days back, the family and I hit up Boyer Orchards over in Monkton VT. We grab several pounds of apples along with another pumpkin for the kid (we’re at 9 and it’s not even October yet). While the purchase was to give me enough apples to try a few apple cakes, I had enough to experiment with a few other recipes. Hence, a late-night venture that involved wanting to make apple butter.
Ingredients
6.5 pounds of apples (peeled and cored), 1 cup sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar(I used light), 1 Tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of nutmeg, 1’4 tsp of ground cloves, 1/4 tsp of salt, and I Tbsp of vanilla extract.
The prep took the longest since I don’t have a fancy apple peeler. I did everything by hand. After using an apple slicer and cutting some of the larger pieces I threw the apple into my crockpot/slowcooker.
In a separate bowl, combine all your dry ingredients. Whisk everything together before adding to crock pot. Combine with apples and turn your crock pot on low. Let apples cook for the next 10 hours. After 10 hours, add the vanilla and cook for another two hours.
After 12 hours your apples pieces will be super tender. You’ll hopefully see a lot of natural juices already . To get that extra smooth consistancy, you’re gonna want to utlize an immersion blender. Spend a few minutes getting that silky smooth texture before allowing everything to cool completely.
While you can certainly try to can this concoction, in the right container, this will last up to a month in fridge. As for me and my house, we don’t plan for what we’re keeping to last through October. We’ve kept some for us and already given a few jars away. If the church I serve host another “Apple Day” event this year I’ll look to make another batch in a few weeks. In the meantime, I’m smothering biscuits with this sweet treat.
As you were,
~tBSB