The BEST Homemade Recipe For Apple Butter - The Love Nerds (2024)

Whenever I think of homemade apple butter, I think of my grandma.

My mom grew up on an orchard in the St. Louis area, and, even though it was sold long before I was born, my grandma would get a big batch of fresh fruit from old neighbors and make homemade jams and preserves.

When we visited, we would often be sent back home with a couple jars of goodies – normally her peach jelly and apple butter.

Before my grandma passed on a few years ago now, I took it upon myself to try to recreate her apple butter.

Well, her old fashion apple butter recipe combined with the Cracker Barrel Apple Butter Recipe that my family also loves so much! It gives it a little more fall spice!

She thought the end result was delicious and absolutely loved that this apple butter recipe was made in the slow cooker.

She had alwaysmade it the long way with the oven and stove top, so using the crock pot was a genius idea to her!

She always loved seeing how technology could make cooking easier over the years, including her peach jelly recipe that can be made in the microwave!

Looking for another fruit butter? Check out my recipe for Pumpkin Butter! It’s easier and faster to make than apple butter as you

Herapple butter wasnormally made from a red apple which is traditional, so the recipe down below is made from red Galas.

I have plans on eventually tweaking the recipe slightly into a Granny Smith Apple Butter, which is something my grandma did occasionally. It was my sister Debbie’s favorite batch!

First – Apple butter is not apple-flavored butter. I know flavored butter seems to be all the rage lately, but this is not it.

In fact, apple butter has not butter in it at all. The term butter refers only to the butter-like thick consistency and it’s common use as a spread on breads.

Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of applesauce that’s super smooth and made by slow cooking apples with water or cider until the sugar in the apples caramelizes which is where apple butter gets its dark brown color.

The concentration of the sugar also gives apple butter a longer shelf life than apple sauce.

If you’ve never had apple butter before, I always recommend trying for the first time on a warm fluffy biscuit! It’s the perfect combination!

When or if you frequent a Cracker Barrel, you should definitely order the apple butter and biscuits; it’s a must for us!

I also really love baking with apple butter because the spiced apple flavor pairs so well with breads and pastries.

I use my homemade apple butter to make myApple Roseswhich are always a big hit at Thanksgiving and special events. Consider even subbing out any other jelly or preserve with apple butter, such as crumb bars.

Apple Butter can also be used with main dish recipes and is most commonly paired with pork!

Take a look right below for a few suggestions of what you can cook with apple butter!

For apple butter, I normally rely on McIntosh, Cortland, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Cortland, Fuji, and Granny Smith. You can use a combination of apples to try different flavors and balance.

Realize some apples and even some batches are sweeter than others so you can adjust how much sugar you use based on how sweet your apple is. It’s easy to start with less sugar and add more later!

Consistency of your apple butter will be a personal preference. As this is essentially a longer cooked apple sauce, your apple butter will most likely be slightly chunky after slow cooking all day.

I prefer my apple butter to be smooth though, so you will notice I added in a step in the recipe to use an immersion blender to puree the apple butter. Before I owned an immersion blender, I would just put it through a classic blender.

This is one of the most common question I get regarding my apple butter recipe, so I’m adding it’s own section.

I personally add this apple butter to mason jars and keep in the fridge. It will stay good for a month and often longer!

Lastly, I have never canned apple butter or anything else before. However, my grandma did and you certainly can.

You can check out Ball’s website for canning instructions. Again though – I have not tried it myself though so I cannot offer a guarantee on the process.