Crockpot Apple Butter
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An 80-year-old family apple butter recipe adapted for the slow cooker. With just a few simple ingredients, this Crockpot apple butter recipe will have your home smelling like a slice of autumn heaven!
About My Family’s Apple Butter Recipe
Growing up, everyone around me knew what I meant when I told them it was, “Apple Butter Weekend.” For over 80 years, my family has gathered together to peel, chop and cook apples in a mongo copper pot over an open fire.
Some of my most nostalgic childhood memories reside in this tradition.
Making Apple Butter in the Crockpot
I took the family recipe (which calls for 10 bushels of apples and 40 pounds of sugar, mind you) and reworked it to be made in the slow cooker.
When I mentioned possibly making it in the Instant Pot, my sister told me that was sacrilegious.
I’m telling you. My family takes this tradition very seriously.
Despite the family criticism, I prevailed. And you guys, it was good. Like, REALLY good.
Ingredients
Here is what you’ll need if you want to give this traditional recipe a whirl:
- Apples – Jonathan apples are what we use. You can sub Braeburn too.
- Sugar – White sugar. I have never tested it with brown.
- Apple cider – When I tested it without this, I thought the flavor fell a little flat. The apple cider brought some vibrancy to the recipe.
- Ground cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, and whole star anise – Star Anise can be hard to find in some areas. While it adds a lot of depth of flavor, the recipe will still be delicious without it.
How to Make Crockpot Apple Butter
Peel and Chop the Apples
Peeling and chopping 6 pounds of apples is quite the task. If you’re open to buying a little kitchen gadget, I’d recommend getting this apple peeler.
I know that it looks like some sort of torture device, but hear me out. You pop the apple on there, give it a crank, and the device not only peels the outside but slices and cores it as well.
Place Ingredients in Slow Cooker
After apples are peeled and chopped, they go into the slow cooker with all of the rest of the ingredients.
It will make your home smell like a slice of autumn heaven all day long.
Blend the Apples
Let these apples do their thang for about 4 hours or so and then pull out the big guns…the immersion blender!
If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can work in batches and use a food processor or blender to work the texture down to a choppy puree.
Cook for 5 more hours and guess what? You’ve just made slow cooker apple butter! I’m so proud of you!
How to Serve Apple Butter
Here are some ideas on how apple butter is best used:
- Serve it on toast or dinner rolls. This is my favorite way to use it.
- Use it as a jelly replacement. It’s delicious with peanut butter.
- Swirl it into oatmeal. It would be a great addition to our Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal.
- Dollop it onto pancakes or waffles. I used to do this for my kids instead of syrup.
- Add it on a cheese plate or Charcuterie Board. It works with both nutty soft cheeses like brie and harder types like sharp cheddar or aged gouda.
How to Store Apple Butter
There are a few ways you can safely store apple butter:
- Store it in the refrigerator. It will last around 7 days before the quality starts to diminish.
- Store in the freezer. You can place the apple butter in mason jars and freeze it. Just be sure to use a wide-mouthed mason jar and leave about 1 inch of headspace for the apple butter to expand.
- Use mason jars to can the apple butter. This is my preferred way to store apple butter. If you choose to can the apple butter, be sure to follow accurate instructions.
FAQs
I wouldn’t recommend it. Low and slow is the best option.
Yes, I’d recommend peeling the apples. While the apple peel does contain nutrition, it won’t have the smooth texture you will want.
Yes, apple butter can be canned using proper canning techniques. This allows you to store it at room temperature for an extended period.
Star of Anise is a sweet, spicy, and licorice-like flavor. It brings a lot of depth of flavor to the apple butter. However, we’ve had readers say they didn’t use it and it turned out fine!
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Crockpot Apple Butter
A long-time family apple butter recipe adapted for the slow cooker. Simple ingredients, simple to make!
Ingredients
- 6 pounds Jonathan apples (I used Braeburn)
- 1 1/5 cups white sugar
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 tbsp ground Cinnamon
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- 1 whole star anise
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Instructions
- Peel and chop the apples into small pieces. (Use this apple peeler to speed up the process.)
- Add apples, sugar, apple cider, ground cinnamon, cinnamon sticks and whole star anise to the slow cooker. Stir until apples are coated in the ingredients.
- Cook for 4 hours on low.
- Remove the cinnamon sticks and star of anise
- Use an immersion blender to process the apples and smooth out the texture.
- Add the cinnamon sticks and whole star anise back in and cook for 5 more hours.
- Let cool, remove cinnamon sticks and star of anise.
- Store in mason jars.
Notes/Tips
You could easily freeze the apple butter in mason jars (leaving 1-inch headroom) or in a freezer bag.
If you can’t find Star of Anise, we’ve had readers say they didn’t use it and it turned out fine
Try Our Strawberry Freezer Jam
If you like this apple butter recipe, you will love our Strawberry Freezer Jam. Give it a try!
Yummy! Thanks for the recipe. It’s easy using the slow cooker but also really good. I did not use the anise but it is still delicious.
Glad you enjoyed it Lesa. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
I love, love apple butter, but this recipe makes more than I can use. If I cut the recipe in half, do I need to adjust the time in the crock pot?
Hi Marie. You will need to adjust the time some, but I don’t think it would be by half. We haven’t tested it though, so if you do make it, please let us know what worked for you!
What do you do when the local Aldi has an overabundance of Cosmic Crisp apples and is selling them for 49¢ for a 2 pound bag? You make apple butter, of course…and applesauce and apple pie…
This recipe is the same as the one I grew up with. My mom’s side of the family would spend the day cooking it outside over a fire in a big copper kettle (with a silver dollar in the bottom so it wouldn’t stick. Ha!) and stirring it with a big wooden paddle.
Thank you so much for sharing! Minimal ingredients and the star anise are the keys to superb apple butter!
Hi JJ! Such a great memory for you. Polly’s family does the same thing. Love that you bought up the apples on sale and made lots of things. Thank you so much for sharing!
I’m going to try this recipe and then I will come back and leave a comment on how well it worked! I’m trying to find apples! This sounds wonderful and very easy! I don’t have an immersion blender, so I’m going to use a regular blender and I will check out the apple peeler! Once I get apples
Great! We would love your feedback once you make it. Thank you Kimberly!
I just made this with 16 cups of Jonathan apples that I did not peel. It worked great. I’ve made apple butter before but never with the Star of Anise. It definitely added to the recipe and was worth the purchase.
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review Erin. So glad the Whole Star Anise was a winner for you too!
New to canning… what is a water bath and its purpose?
Great question. It is a way to seal up produce in jars. A water bath only works for highly acidic foods though. You can read more here: https://www.almanac.com/water-bath-canning-beginners-guide
After you’ve put the apple butter I nto the jars do you need to give them a hot water bath?
I do!
How key is the Star of Anise? It’s really hard to find in our area, without traveling to the metroplex or ordering online.
It’s interesting, but I think you’ll be fine without it!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I actually bought that apple peeler!!
So my family has this exact same tradition for about the same amount of years but we cannot do it this year in 2020 due to Covid. I was so happy to read about that another family did this.
It is actually not that common. Another fun thing is your recipe is the SAME as our family recipe! I was glad to know how to downsize it from the outdoor pot over the fire to a crockpot.
Thank you so much I will be using this recipe sometime this week as we were accustomed to cooking our apple butter weekend the first weekend in October.
This recipe looks delicious. Can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing.
Could you use coconut sugar?
I’m gonna try this recipe. I haven’t had apple butter in years!
Hi Maria, I use coconut sugar pretty frequently at home. I haven’t tried Polly’s recipe with it yet, but it’s worth noting that coconut sugar is less sweet than table sugar. Would definitely recommend upping the amount you use.