Apple Butter!!!

It's almost fall!  That means my husband takes over the TV to watch football (even if he doesn't like either team playing), leaves are changing colors, the weather is getting cooler... Wait, I live in Florida so forget the last two things.  It's still 90 degrees here.  So I am trying to make my house as fall-ish as I can by surrounding myself with Autumn decor, pumpkin everything and and sometimes I turn the A/C down to 70 so it gets a little chilly in my house.  Is that weird?

The past few weeks I've received so many apples through the organic co-op that I use (Link to Annie's).  My family just doesn't eat apples fast enough to consume the mountain of apples that have been sitting in my fridge.  I'd hate to see them go to waste, so I decided to make my first ever batch of Apple Butter.

This recipe does include a lot of sugar, but it makes a large batch and as long as you don't eat a whole jar of the butter it is still healthy.

Ingredients (try to use organic ingredients whenever possible!)
3-4lbs of Organic Apples, peeled and cut into quarters
1/3 c. apple cider vinegar
2c white sugar (you can substitute 1c raw local honey - I am going to try it next time)
1c brown sugar
1tsp cinnamin
1tsp nutmeg
1tsp cloves
Dash of salt
Mason Jars (my batch of apple butter filled five small mason jars)

Directions
1.) Peel, core and cut the apples into quarters.

 2.)  Put the apples into a crock pot.

3.)  Pour apple cider vinegar over the apples.
4.)  Add spices and sugar.
5.)  Stir everything together.
6.)  Cook on high for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
7.)  Cook on low for 5 hours, stirring occasionally.  You will notice a lot of juice.
8.)  Blend some of the apples in a blender with some juice from the crock pot.  Put into a bowl and repeat until you've blended all of the apples and juice.
9.)  Put the mixture back into the crock pot and cook on low for one hour.
10.)  Boil a large pot of water.
11.)  Place jars without the lids into the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
12.)  Remove the jars from the water - be careful because they will be VERY hot.  Place the jars onto a towel to cool a bit.
13.)  Pour apple butter into the jars.  Place the lids on the jars.
14.)  Allow the jars to cool a bit.
 15.)  Refrigerate (you can store your apple butter in the refrigerator for up to six months)

Delicious Apple Butter!

I enjoy my Apple Butter with Cottage Cheese.

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