Making Apple Butter

My friends and I got together this fall to make apple butter.  It was my first attempt at this homemade, crafty thing, so I didn’t know if it would turn out.  But I’m so glad I did it!  It was fun to do something I never thought I could do, to spend time with my friends, and to have a bunch of apple butter to eat and share.

 Making apple butter is a lot of work and time consuming, but so worth it.  Here’s the quick run-down on how we made a whole bunch of apple butter.

 

The Steps  

1. Get fresh apples from a local orchard

–  a fun thing to do with kids in tow!

2.  Wash the apples 

3.  Peel and core the apples 

–  three of us spent a couple of hours peeling and coring.  We used hand peelers
but the best tool was the apple peeler and corer — it really helped speed up
the process.

4.  Cook the apples 

5.  Puree the apples and add spices 

6.  Bake the mixture down to make apple butter 

–  this part takes a while since the mixture needs a lot of time to bake down.
While the apple butter was baking we had the chance to clean up the huge
mess, snack, and talk.

7.  Start the canning 

–  the hot apple butter goes straight into hot jars.  One person can do all of this,
but since there were 3 of us we tag-teamed it to be as efficient as possible.
We poured the apple butter into each jar, wiped the rim of the jar, and then
placed the lid on the jar.  We then put the screw cap on tightly, but not
completely tight.

8.  Water bath time

–  the jars need to be sealed in a hot water bath to keep bacteria from growing.
I have a canner that I bought at Target for this purpose.  This is a great post
for really detailed instructions on the canning process.

9.  Let the jars sit and seal 

–  the jars need to sit for 12-24 hours to make sure they seal properly.  After
that time you can check to see if each jar has sealed properly by making sure
the button in the middle of the lid is flat.

10.  Once you know the jar has sealed, fully tighten the screw cap, wipe down the outside of the jars, and you’re ready to go! 

I paid $20 for my share of the apples, spent about $10 on jars, and came home with 36 jars of apple butter.  The hours of work it took to make it were definitely worth it to be able to give a really cute and economical gift to people.  It made the perfect teacher appreciation week gift for Jack’s preschool teachers.  And it’s a great gift when paired with biscuit mix and a biscuit cutter for a cute birthday, thank you, or hostess gift.  It’s also perfect to take along when taking a meal to a new mom.