It may be better than store-bought, but the kind I buy has no added sugar. I wonder if that's possible in the crockpot.

Brenna, it absolutely could be done with no sugar! I wish I had spoken to you earlier---I did not come across a recipe with no sugar, and wouldn't have thought to make it without.

if you do it with no sugar, will you let me know?

xoxo
steph

This is very similar to the recipe I use except I never thought of adding vanilla extract to it. I used clean pasta sauce and taco sauce jars since it will keep in the refrigerator for a few about a month (not that it lasted that long...LOL). The remainder of it I put in freezer containers. I found that my recipe calls for too much sugar too. I prefer a tarter apple butter.

Just a note, you can also use pears for this or a combination of apples and pears.

I start out the same as you, leaving out the sugar though. After the apples cook down I blend it smooth, and add a bag of caramels, turn heat to high and leave the lid off to help it thicken.

It is soooo yummmy! We either have it on toast or warm it up and serve it over vanilla ice cream.

I love apple butter in the crockpot. It makes my house smell like fall. :) I don't usually use as much sugar as the recipes call for either. If you have sweeter apples, you may not even need to add it. I've made pear butter this way before and it was SO good!

Love this recipe it looks wonderful, a perfect thing to make on a chilly fall day and I bet it makes your house smell great! Leaving the apple skins on until after cooking has the added advantage of letting all the wonderful nutrients that are in the skin infuse your apple butter thus making it more healthy. Not to mention you don't have to peel, I hate peeling!

My girlfriend and I just made and canned a large batch of apple butter in the crockpot! We added 1.5 cups of sugar to a 6 qt crockpot full of (sweet) apples and felt like it was way too sweet when we were done. I think the sugar added really depends on the sweetness of the apple.

I wish we'd thought to add vanilla extract, though. We did cinnamon, cloves and sugar. SO GOOD.

that is kind of cute looking!!!

I'm going to Trax Farms today and they have the BEST apple butter. I really want to try this. Although I can't get enough of the old standby PB&J, some apple butter with peanut butter sounds scrumptious.

I just did this for the first time last week and it was fabulous. My technique, gleaned from a post on chowhound:
*Peel and slice apples and layer in crockpot.
*After a layer or so, throw in a handful of brown sugar (or mix brown and white) and a sprinkling of nutmeg and cinnamon.
*Continue to the top. Turn on high. Stir every once in awhile.
*Stir in a heaping tablespoon of grated fresh ginger (this was a fabulous addition).
*As it starts to cook down, continue to add layers of apples, etc. Continue to do this for the next hour or so until you can't pack anymore in.
*Turn to low and cook for the rest of the day. Take the lid off and turn back to high at the end, stirring frequently, if you want it to thicken up more.

We canned ours-got about four pints out of a 6qtcrockpot. You could do it without sugar but I'd taste it to see...to me, part of the appeal of apple butter is that it's almost caramelized tasting (otherwise, it's applesauce! lol).

Also great on a pork tenderloin, or with grilled cheese and dijon mustard sandwiches.

I'm so going to have to try this! My hubby loves apple butter, and loves homemade things even more!

thank you for this recipe. I think my husband and kida would enjoy this. Im undecided about if I would like it or not.

I've never done apple butter in the crock pot (or ever, come to think of it) but I really think I should try it - this looks delicious.

I never knew that apple butter didn't have butter in it. I am going to make this with some splenda instead of sugar. It sounds awesome!!

And for the truly lazy:
one large jar of unsweetened applesauce and the added spices will cook up fabulous and leave your house smelling great.

I am wondering if I were to make this recipe, would I be able to can the leftovers. I Love apple butter but my husband isn't a fan. I would love to try this recipe, it just seems to much for me at one time. Please email me, m_c_vega@yahoo.com and let me know some more details. I would appreciate it.

I LOVE apple butter! Thank you for this recipe. I can't wait to try it.

This is great!! I want to make this for Christmas presents. I don't can so can someone give me ideas on how to freeze it. Please!! And how long would it last in the fridge? Thanks!!

This sounds delicious. I'm going to buy a big bag of (local) apples and make some! After that, applesauce!

i've never had apple butter but i dont understand how this is any different from regular applesause...?

I recently came across blog and absolutely LOVE it...mainly, because I am the worst cook about anything that needs to be "stirred constantly" or just monitored in general. :o)

Ok, getting to the point of this comment... what kind (type) of apples did you use?

I think I will try this just to smell up the house!! I doubt it will come close to tasting like the kind sitting in my fridge now that was homemade by my mother in a kettle over an outdooor fire in East Tenn. I am spoiled by her apple butter and never buy it in the store.

Ahh, definitely that time of year...I just canned a dozen 1/2 pints of it last week. So easy & oh, so good. I love the freedom you have to experiement. I ended up adding a little bit of molasses to mine at the end because it just needed 'something'. That was it! Yum!
Glad you tried it!

Do you ever use the Crockpot liners to help with clean up?

I have made this apple butter in the past without any sugar and I think this is very, very good. My 34 year old son loves it, too.
I just want to add that I love your blog but I wonder what will happen on day 366???

What a cool blog! I just found you and think it's great, I'm adding you to my cooking blog roll :)

My Hubby loves apple butter, I might have to try this one!

You have to try caramel apple butter. Mmmmm.

I was wondering what kind of apples you feel works best?

Hi there,
I don't know if they work the best, but what I used were half fuji apples and half green.

--steph

The traditional recipes call for some cider vinegar. I always did mine in the oven, the batches were too large for a slow cooker. Margaret

* You can leave the skins on and puree the a'sauce before making the a'butter. I just use a stick blender.
* Re canning: Find a canning specific recipe. You have to be really careful with canning. I've successfully frozen a'butter.

I make and bottle a large batch of apple butter every year. If you peel and grate the apples first you can get a lot more in the crockpot. I use between 25-30 apples and about two cups of sugar. I cook it in the crockpot all night and bottle it in the morning. Delish!

a quick and easy way to make the apple sauce: Cut apples in half, removing only the stems. Simmer in a large pot until mushy. Then put through a Foley food mill. You have just a bit of waste. and really no work.

So wait...did you really cook this for 14 hrs?

So wait...did you really cook this for 14 hrs?

awesome! i am going to make a few batches & give as holiday gifts!! i love to give homemade food stuff.

How big are the 3 jars that it makes

Make the applesauce with skins on. When apples are soft, push the whole batch through a food mill. Whatever is left in the food mill, puree the heck out of it in a blender and add it back into the applesauce. The apple skins have a lot of fiber, good for you, and pectin, too, a type of fiber. When you add the skins back in like this, the applesauce is much thicker, and will mound up, instead of being thin and watery. Perfect for apple Charlotte. Thick applesauce makes into apple butter faster, as there is less water to evaporate.

Drop your brown sugar, the Apple butter will not be quite as dark and not as sweet. Also too it is very difficult to make it without sugar and is not legal to make without a certified kitchen and canning process.

I'm trying apple butter in the crockpot this week. I'm making mine with apple juice instead of sugar and canning it. I'll be posting about it on my blog in a few days if anyone is interested.

www.theamericanhomemaker.blogspot.com

Not legal to make it without a certified kitchen and canning process? HUH? Who's checking? I am making this tomorrow, guarantee I'll be canning it.

Now, I went onto Google and looked at canning pumpkin butters, it really scared me! I have always canned apples. Not so sure I would take a chance on canning pumpking butter!!

I'm going to try making it with splenda, DH is diabetic.

I cooked the apples overnight last night. The house smelled wonderful while we were sleeping. I added the splenda this morning and the spices. It will be put on tonight when I get home early from work. I didn't add much splenda, I used Sweet Sixteen apples that I picked at an orchard in Sioux Falls, SD. They were plenty sweet already.

So I made this last night without sugar. I used 4 ginger gold appless, 1 cortland & 1 teaspoon of cinnamon overnight on low in the crockpot (I left out the other spices so my son could eat it). I blended it in the food processor. It's yummy!

I've never made apple butter before. I'm not sure I've ever eaten it before, either, but this recipe looked too good to resist!

I made a batch last night and this morning (using Empire apples) and just had some on banana pancakes for lunch - so good! I did use half the sugar as you recommended and the apple butter was still plenty sweet, almost like jam.

Love your blog - and I love that the recipes are all gluten-free! I don't need to substitute out the wheat ingredients usually found in so many recipes.

Always remove the seeds by coring your apples. Apple seeds contain the poison,cyanide, which your body can only process in small doses. Children and seniors are much more affected by the cyanide.

This turned out so well for me!
I did not peel the apples; I used about 1/2 cup honey and a scant 1/4 cup molasses instead of sugar; and I added 1/2 tsp ground ginger. I also accidentally ended up adding quite a bit more cinnamon later on (I meant to just add a sprinkling more, but the shaker lid on my jar came off and dumped a WHOLE lot in! I scraped out what I could, and left in what I think was about a teaspoon). After it was done cooking I did small batches in the blender to deal with the chunks of remaining skin.
It is so delicious! Many thanks for the recipe.

I just made this last night and made the 6.5 crockpot, I only used 1/2 brown sugar and it is plenty sweet enough, I think it depends on your apples....ohhhh caramels that sounds good.

When i make this I add a can of apple juice concentrate instead of any sugar. It tastes good and I can it. It's high acid enough.

My husband and I have enjoyed this receipe soooooo much. We went out and bought one of those new fangled "apple/corer/peelers" and it makes the prep a snap. Traveled to the mountain apple country yesterday for more apples - making apple butter again today. Great for gifts! (We cut the sugar to 3/4 cup & it's delicious).

jrnana, I'm so jealous of your apple corer-slicer thingymabob!
I'm glad you liked this.
xox
steph

This was SO delicious! And made enough to give away plenty. My hubby has a peeler/corer/slicer gadget, too, so I got 13 apples done in about 10 mins. (while feeding my 20 month old too!) And just for informational purposes - if you end up cooking the apples/sugar/cloves/cinnamon longer than suggested in the recipe, say even 2 hours b/c you dear hubby forgot to turn the crockpot off while you were at work, it doesn't ruin it at all! ;)

This was AMAZING! I made it today and I love it. I added some nutmeg, cut the white sugar to 1 cup and the brown sugar to 3/4 cup. Perfect! Thank you for sharing!

You can cook the apples with the skins on then just force them through a sieve/fine colander. Most of the skins should stay in the colander. Use a spatula or small bowl to force the pulp through. As for canning, a plain old boiling water canner should work fine. Apples are a high-acid food, so they don't require pressure canning. Boiling is sufficient. I did it with my husband's grandmother, and she says that a regular pressure canner brought up to 5 pounds and turned off works the same as boiling water canning and is much quicker. She's done it that way for years, and it's perfectly safe. Just like anything else, you should wait about 24 hours and check for a seal. Once the jars seal they will keep for a year easily. If you have one that doesn't seal, either reprocess it or stick it in your frige and use it first!
I love your blog and am so glad I found it!
Jessica

I make my applebutter with apple cider and a touch of honey (maybe 1/4 C to 1/2 C for 3-4 quarts.) It comes out sweet and still a bit tart. I've never made it in the crockpot, but I am thinking that it would be super easy to do it this way overnight and then process in the morning while I brew my coffee:)

I am able to combine 4-6 different kinds of apples for a bushel when I pick, so I try to use a variety. My applesauce turned out great this way! Same for the applebutter.

I made an initial batch a few weekends ago, and then two this weekend! My hubby loves it! I got brave and canned some last night, because I want to give it as christmas gifts. Worked well. I made a batch-and-a-half, and it canned 4 pints, with a half pint left over in the fridge for the hubby to enjoy! Now, I have to hide the pints for Christmas from him!

Gave away our last pint of apple butter today. Can't wait to make more. This receipe is absolutely the easiest, and so delicious. The hardest thing will be finding the jar sealers/caps.

I've got this working in the crockpot now so that I can use some of it in an apple butter spice cake for thanksgiving tomorrow!

A Pinch of baking soda, and a pinch of salt will make this taste 'sweeter' for those who happen to be diabetic, as I am.

You can also make this with pears. I just core them, leave the peel, and cut the sugar. CUT THE SUGAR!! They are wonderful and have actually become our favorite of the "butters."

I made this last night and am eating it on a biscuit as I type. I used about 9 cortland apples in my small crockpot. I only used a tablespoon of each sugar with the other spices. It had the consistency of applesauce, so I used my emulsion blender in it for a few minutes. It's nice and smooth and to die for!! My house smells great, too :)

I currently have your recipe for Broccoli and Three Cheese soup in my crockpot. I also bought all of the ingredients for your "A1 and Dijon Steak" and your "3 Packet Pot Roast". I can't wait to eat dinner this week :) And.... I'm only down to the B's on your alphabetical recipe listing.

Thanks so much!

I've never had apple butter, but I was intrigued and made this, cutting back the sugar to a total of one cup. Absolutely amazing!!! Thank you so much for a fabulous recipe!

I'm making this right now and just tried a taste and oh my gosh it's so good! I used 3/4 cup of each sugar like you recommended in your note and it was perfect!

I can't wait to put it on biscuits!

My Mom used to make a rather complicated, work intensive stove top version when I was a kid. I HATED stirring the apples every 15 minutes... We had a bumper crop of apples this year and when I ran across your recipe I was there! Just finished making and bottling 4 batches of this and LOVE it! I used 3 different apples and since my reds were super sweet I only added a half cup of brown sugar. It turned out great. I will NEVER do this on the stove top again (sorry Mom....)

I used granny smith apples, 2 cups white sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cloves. Wonderful!!! I processed 5, 1/2 pint jars in my canner for presents then made another batch for me.

I just made this using mostly red pears, and a few fuji apples. I used 1 cup of each kind of sugar, and I added almost 1 t cloves, and I used my homemade vanilla. Mmmmmmmm! Very good! It is still cooking in there, but it already tastes wonderful!!

Made this last night and it's still in the last stage of cooking but tastes terrific! I'm a retired lady (kids grown and on their own) so had time to peel nine Gala apples; then used slicer/corer (from Crate & Barrel) to speed up process. Put little steamer grid (from my small wok) atop slices and vanilla in CrockPot and stacked peelings on grid to cook nutrients into apple mixture. Eight hours later, I removed grid and easily disposed of all peelings, which were cooked dry. Then added 1/2 cup Demerara sugar (Galas are naturally sweet) plus 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg since I'm not fond of clove flavor. Will use my immersion blender when phase 2 cooking is finished and apple slices are softer having cooked more, but I'm excited about how good this Apple Butter is! Thanks very much for the recipe and the method. Love your blog, CrockPot Lady!

My apple butter turned out great! It made a ton. I froze most of it.

I don't use any sugar in mine. My secret to the sweetness is using apple cider. Most recipes I've come across call for adding water to help the apples cook down, like applesauce. But I was trying to avoid the tons of sugar used, so I tried it with cider and the usual spices and it turned out fantastic. I do blend it down so it's nice and smooth. Also, I use a splash-guard (screened) lid on the crockpot so the moisture can vent and prevent it from popping all over the place once it starts to get thicker. I'm getting ready myself to make a few batches.

I halved the recipe and made in my tiny crock. Only used a 1/4 cup of each sugar and added nutmeg. I made it last week and it's almost gone. It was sooo amazing. Thx for the recipe. I'll be making a ton of this for the holidays.

making this right now :) I cut up 9 honeycrisp apples, and added the vanilla, I am planning on no sugar, but am ok with adding some if I think it needs it. As much as my kids like apples and other fruit, I probably won't. I'm looking forward to it!! The hubby LOVES Apple butter!!

I've never added sugar to my apple butter EVER. I use Red delicious and granny apples and it is sweet at the end. My daughter never lets it stay in the house long. Also, I use my crock pot for 8-10 hours and then the batch is done. Usually within 5 hours the batch is mushy (AND SWEET TO THE TASTE) but I take a taste every hour till the very end.

My home always smells of apples cooking my apple butter.

~Danielle~

Hello! I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful recipe! I used 1/2 apples and 1/2 pears and used a 1-1 ratio for white/brown sugar and OMG best slow cooker recipe for butter EVER! Who'da thunk Vanilla extract would do ALL THAT to a fruit butter? Thank you again!!

For those asking if you can freeze the apple butter instead of canning it, yes you can. (I'm getting ready to pour some into freezer containers right now.)

I had an over abundance of apples this year and decided to try make apple butter, but failed to look at your site to see if you had a recipe. I filled my BIG crockpot with peeled sectioned and cored apples, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1 cup brown sugar. I let this cook on low until I went to bed - about 10 hours, then put the cooker on warm until the next morning. In the morning I filled the pot with more apples and the same spices and let it cook on low, stirring when I remembered until dinner time at which time I filled the pot one last time with apples the same spices minus the nutmeg, let it cook on low until bedtime and set it on warm for the night. In the morning I ran a stick blender through it to make it very smooth, and canned it in pint jars in a 20 minute water bath. It made 8 plus jars of the best apple butter with only 1 cup of sugar to over 8 pints of apple butter. I used golden delicious apples which were already sweet and note: If you peel an apple with a potato peeler, it is very quick and easy, I can peel about 15 apples in under 5 minutes! This was so good, had to share.

After picking apples this past weekend, I decided to attempt making my first ever batch of apple butter.
I had purchased a food mill earlier this year to speed up processing a bumper crop of tomatoes. I found that it also makes really easy applesauce. I just cook the apples until they are soft and then run them through the food mill (Oxco brand from Amazon). It is so quick and removes all the skins, seeds, stems, you don't even have to core the apples!
Following the rest of this wonderful recipe my house is already to starting to smell like yummy apple butter, I'm sure it will taste delicious! Thanks for the tips, nice blog btw...I'll be back to browse some more slow cooker ideas.

Thanks for this recipe!! Just tried it today in my 3.5 qt slow cooker, used half pears and half apples, added nutmeg, and only used 1/4 cup white sugar. It is sooooo good! I have been "tasting" it constantly, and I really wish I had made a bigger batch. Took some out a couple of hours after I added the spices to give to my 9-month old twins, and they gobbled it up on a plain rice cake.

I made apple butter in my cooker last year after making juice from a box of apples we were given.
They were organic so I just washed, quartered, trimmed, and removed the stems and seeds/core. I ran them through a Champion Juicer and got quarts of fresh apple juice (incredible!) and fresh, raw apple pulp with the peel already pulverized. (We mixed some in the food processor with frozen pineapple for a fresh, raw "applesauce.")
I put all the remaining pulp in the cooker and cooked it down (high for 8 hrs.?) until it was thick and dark brown. Then I added pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and vanilla, and cooked on low another 4-6 hrs (I think). NO added sugar. (If it gets too thick or for even more flavor add some of the juice back in.)
It was incredible and delicious--juice, raw pina-apple sauce, and apple butter for almost free!

I made apple butter in my small dip-sized crock pot. I just sliced 4 apples and added 2 cups of water, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and a few swirls of agave nectar. Cooked, stirred, left the skins on and ran it through the blender after it cooled!

I was looking for a crock pot apple butter with the least amount of ingredients and work. I found your site sometime last year and made two batches of apple butter (with Gravensteins and then Fuji). I just finished this morning making another batch of Gravensteins. I cut down the sugar to 1/2 of each and can't wait to try it out! I love this recipe!

I made this without any sugar and it was so so good! I used apples right off my tree. It was a tad tart for my young daughter, so I added a T of honey and it was perfect. I would definitely advise peeling the apples because it was near impossible to get all the skin out. This made 1 qt of apple butter.

I usually make apple butter on the stove but this year I did the first cook on the stove and then cooked it down in the crock pot. For apple butter that tastes great and is safe for preserving cook the apples in apple cider and apple cider vinegar. Leaving the skin on will lend some natural pectin that gives the butter great texture. Cook until soft on the stovetop , then run through a foodmill to separate the pulp from the skin. Season the pulp and dump into the slowcooker for several hours uncovered to finish it off. Delicious and you can make it only as sweet as you like. Enjoy the fall!

Thank you so much for this delicious recipe. This is my first experience and it was very successful. I have already made one batch and gave some to friends, and am on my second batch. I have made it with sugar and without-both are delicious. I want to make more before the season ends. What a beautiful aroma to wake up to in the morning!

I think I am addicted to this now that I have this simple recipe. I do peel my apples first, but I love peeling apples and can peel the whole thing without a break in the peel. Then I try to sit it up to look like its original self. I know, I'm weird!

Wonderful recipe. Everyone loves the apple butter.

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