Apple Butter

Original recipe from The Times and Bette Chase

The thought of apple butter warms my heart. I always try to buy it homemade, usually at bake sales or yard sales, which I did for my last jar AND it was from Anita Baker's or her friend's yard sale. Then I asked her for the recipe. Seriously, I had no idea of how it was made, or cared, as long as I was able to resource it.

This is a quote from CrazyforCrust.com: "Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of applesauce; it's cooked slow and long so that the sugar in the apples caramelize and turn the sauce a rich, dark brown. It's great on toast and muffins, or in marinades or dips. The smell is amazing!"

Also, on that site was a recipe for Apple Butter Snickerdoodles. I guess apple butter can be used like applesauce when one is substituting the fats and oils.

Did you know that chilled cookie dough is better because the cookies do not flatten as much? I read it on the King Arthur site, and they did experiments on both ways. From their explanation, the fats (butter) do not mingle as much with the flour if it stays chilled, creating more volume-or something like that. It's worth the google if you are curious.

I will retype the recipe as given because, like older recipes, they assumed you knew how to get into the jars for canning. The question I found on the computer was if it could be frozen instead of canned and the answer is yes.

Everyone, and I mean 100% of those who make apple butter, will tell you transparent apples are the best. They come on in August and don't last long. I'm not sure why they are the best to use, unless it's because they cook down quicker.

INGREDIENTS:

1 gallon of cooked apples (summer Transparents the best)

3 qts sugar

½ cup vinegar

½ tsp each cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt

Touch of cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Cook in oven at 250 -300 degrees until thick.

MY NOTES: For those who would like to try this, please google any additional questions. There is a lot of information available. I had to be reminded how many cups is a gallon and a quart. The answer is 16 cups to a gallon and four cups to a quart.

Fall is just around the corner, and for me that means fresh apples.

Thank you, Anita, for taking the time to drop off the recipe.

ENJOY!