A Is For...

Apple butter! One of my patient's kindly shared apples from his trees with us this week. My first thought was that I should make apple butter and my second thought was but I've never made apple butter. On my day off yesterday I decided it was now or never! So I called up a good friend of mine to find out if she was up for a  cooking adventure. You can find the recipe we used here (we reduced it greatly).

The recipe cut down:

-15 small apples

-1 bottle apple cider (I used white grape cider since I had it on hand.)

-1 1/2 cups honey

-1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

-1 3/4 tsp ground cloves

First peel, core, and chop the apples.

Boil the apples in the cider until they are soft and tender.

Stirring regularly.

When apples are soft mash with a potato masher.

Spoon mashed apples into food processor until it's smooth.

Now that the apples is smooth put back into pot.

And add spices and honey.

Stir constantly so that the apple butter doesn't stick to the pot and burn.
Simmer on low heat for 1 1/2 hours until apple butter has thickened.

Ladle apple butter into canning jars.
If you'll use it soon you can just add the lid and refrigerate
or use canning methods to seal jars.

All in all a great morning spent with a dear friend and a jar full of yumminess to take home too! It was great this morning on my homemade bread. To make this delicious duo you can find my bread recipe here.

Happy Crafting!