Canning apple butter jam

Canning Apple Butter Recipe

This is an incredibly easy recipe for canning apple butter and making it in a Crockpot. Slow cook the apples overnight, and your kitchen will smell heavenly in the morning.

After cooking in the Crockpot, you will need to process the jars in a boiling water canner. Or you can freeze it or just put it in the refrigerator to use now.

Homemade apple butter slathered on lightly toasted and buttered fresh bread with a cup of tea or decaf coffee on the side is a favorite snack for me!

This Page Includes:

Crockpot Apple Butter for Canning: Extended, Step-By-Step Directions

Sugar Measurements & Why I Do Things This Way

Note: My source for this recipe is the Ball Blue Book. The exact ratios from my source are…

4 pounds apples and 4 cups sugar.

I used to just add apples, sugar, and spices to the Crockpot and cook it all together (see picture below). However, the issue with that is knowing how much sugar to add.

Cooking the apples to a sauce and then measuring and adding the appropriate amount of sugar will allow you to follow the suggested ratios or at least remember how much sugar you added last time. And you’ll get the same results time after time. Either method will work.

How to Make Crockpot Apple Butter

• water bath canner
• canning jars
• canning lids and rings
• jar lifter and canning funnel
• large pot or blancher
• bowls
• large spoons
• sharp knife
• towels and dish cloths
• whisk
• apple peeler-corer-slicer (This is optional, but I HIGHLY recommend it. They are worth their weight in gold! See if you can borrow one if you don’t have one. It is an incredible, time-saving tool.)

Apple butter ingredients:

• apples – enough to fill your Crockpot very full
• sugar
• spices to taste

How to Make Your Apple Butter

First, peel, core, and slice your apples.

For any apple butter recipe, the apple peeler-corer-slicer comes in handy. It will cut your time in half. (For my video review, click here.) If you do not have one of these, just prepare your apples the old-fashioned way, with a knife. If you do this with a knife, chop your apples up small.

Put your apples into your Crockpot. Fill it up to the brim. The apples will settle quite a bit as they cook and soften. You can add your sugar now, but I’ve been waiting until later when the apples are cooked to an applesauce consistency.

Cook on high for 3 hours or so. This gets things cooking faster. Stir and set on low. Allow this to cook, stirring occasionally, as the fruit gets softer.

When it is an applesauce consistency, measure out your sauce, then add the following for every 2 quarts of fruit pulp:

• 4 cups sugar
• Spices to taste (I use 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, and 1/4 tsp. salt)

(If you have more or less fruit pulp, use this ratio: 1/2 cup sugar to 1 cup fruit pulp, adjusting your seasonings accordingly.)

Alternatively… just add sugar to taste.

In a bowl mix sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Pour this mixture over the apples, stirring to combine. Continue cooking in the slow cooker until it is the consistency you like. Smooth and silky! Finish off with a whisk for a smooth product. This can cook overnight if you have a cooker that will not heat up too much. In my experience, new slow cookers cook too high to be left that long and will end up scorching.

As the apples cook, you will be able to go from stirring with a spoon to a whisk. They will whisk up nice and smooth. The color will get darker and darker as the apple butter thickens as well.

You can leave the lid off for the last hour or two to get a thicker consistency. The butter should round up on your spoon. Do not cook until it is pasty…that would be too thick.

Canning Apple Butter

Fill your jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe the rims clean, remove any air bubbles, and place your lids.

For more details, follow water bath canning instructions.

The National Center for Home Food preservation has you sterilize your pint-size jars and then process them for 5 minutes. To avoid the task of sterilizing jars, I use a 10-minute processing time. (Ball Blue Book just says 10 minutes, adjust for altitude.)

Read here for more information if you’d rather sterilize the jars first: Sterilizing jars for canning.

Make sure to adjust processing time according to altitude. Please read more about why altitude adjustments are important here.

Pinnable Recipe Card

Apple Butter Recipe

Ingredients

• Apples
• Sugar to taste
• Spices to taste (cinnamon, ground cloves, salt)

Equipment

Instructions

For a Hot Pack

Processing

Adapted from: The National Center for Home Food Preservation and the Ball Blue Book.

Last Updated: 6/7/2021

Crockpot Apple Butter FAQs & Tips

Apple Butter in Quarts or Pints?

I always can these in pints or half pints. Half pints are processed the same as pints. You can make fruit butter in quart jars, but I’d suggest you think about it first. A quart of any fruit butter will last a very, very long time. I do not include processing time for quarts. I did one of my Canning Chats on canning apple butter in quarts here.

Canning Caramel Apple Butter?

Can caramel apple butter be canned?
No caramel should not be added to the apple butter. You could probably add caramel when you open the jar to use it though. I’d try heating it up a little and stir in a caramel sauce. Then store it in the fridge.

What Should the Texture Be?

“This is the first time canning apple butter & everything seemed fine until the next day when I noticed a thin liquid @ top of apple butter; is this bad or just normal separation?”

Assuming you processed it in a water bath, it is most likely just a normal separation. Just stir it in when you open the jar to use it. Apple butter will be a smooth sauce consistency. You’ll know it is done when it rounds up on a spoon. It should be spreadable…but not sticky/tacky.

How Long Does Homemade Apple Butter Last?

If I get a hold of it? Not long! 🙂 I LOVE homemade apple butter. In all seriousness, however, homemade apple butter will keep for at least 12 months, likely more, if you store it in a cool, dry place. Once it is opened and in the fridge, plan on a couple of weeks.

What’s the Difference Between Applesauce and Apple Butter Recipe?

Applesauce is a canned apple puree that’s meant to be eaten by the bowlful. Apple butter is cooked longer, so it takes on a different consistency than applesauce, much smoother. It’s also sweeter and more spiced than applesauce.

Using a Food Mill to Make Apple Butter

“Hi Sharon, I’d like to make apple butter in the slow cooker, but I want to use my food mill to clear skins and seeds first. So, my question is: HOW? Just take the applesauce result and put it in the slow cooker? For how long? Thanks. Irene”

Hi Irene, great question. I would just make applesauce as usual with your food mill. Check here for specifics on how to make applesauce. Then add that, plus the sugar, to your Crockpot. The cook time will be less, but I can’t give you an exact time. I’d estimate 6 hours maybe? It all depends on how juicy your applesauce is and how your cooker cooks. Try it out and let me know how it goes. 🙂 – Sharon

Cooking Apple Butter in a Crockpot or on the Stove? Is There a Difference?

“It’s apple butter time! I make mine in the Crockpot & then water bath. Wondering if there a difference between cooking in the Crockpot vs. stove in the sweetness level? Thanks for your help.“

I’ve never tested it, but I don’t think there would be any difference in the sweetness. With the stove, the main thing is just being sure you are on hand to stir more often. The heat is all at the bottom of the pot; with a Crockpot the heat surrounds the apples and will be a gentler heat. It does take longer though. So it just depends on your preference in cooking style. The sweetness will be all about the type of apples and any sweetener you add.

Cooking Apple Butter Covered or Uncovered?

“Hello. My question is when I am cooking down my apple butter recipe, do I need to cover my pot or just leave it uncovered? I did this years ago, and I cannot remember. Thank you. Elise”

Elise, you should either leave the lid off or at least leave the lid ajar so moisture can escape. I’ll usually put it on high for the first hour or so. This gets things heated up quicker, but then turn it down. As the apple butter gets thicker, it may tend to splatter, so that is why I sometimes just suggest leaving the lid ajar. A splatter screen is also a good idea if you want to leave the lid completely off.

How Do You Store Canned Apple Butter?

You should store home canned apple butter in a cool, dark place. Read more about preparing canned food for storage here.

Tip for Getting Fruit

Gleaning from orchards after the main season is a great way to get free fruit. These will usually be seconds, but they’re still perfectly useable. Be sure and call ahead, and always treat the orchard with respect! That orchard owner is trusting that you won’t allow your children to climb trees
and break branches or otherwise be a nuisance. Pick up after yourself when you leave. This is their livelihood, so honor the trust they show by allowing you there.

Canning Chat: Canning Apple Butter the Day After You Make It

Transcript – Edited for Clarity

Hey there–This is Sharon from SimplyCanning.com where you can find home canning food tutorials, tips, and advice, all taught in a way that even a beginner can get their pantry filled. We have a Canning Chat question today from Jennifer. She says, “Hello, I’m new to all of this. Here’s my question: Can I make apple butter today, but put it in jars and process it at a later date, like a week from now?”

Yes, you can make your apple butter today, put it in the refrigerator, and then bring it out, heat it up, and process it. I wouldn’t wait a week though. If you have your apple butter ready and you’re not going to be able to can it, put it in a container in the refrigerator. Take it out the next day. Waiting a week would be too long.

You’d be better off putting it in small containers in the freezer. That’s really fast. If you don’t have time to can it, freezing it is another really good option. Waiting for a whole week wouldn’t be a good idea.

Preparing it one day and processing it the next day is possible with quite a few things. It depends on the food. It works with apple butter, applesauce, tomato sauce, and things like that. Anything that you can put in a container to be refrigerated overnight, without affecting the texture. If you tried that with green beans, carrots, beets, or other vegetables, I’m afraid the quality of the food would go down.

Put it away, and then take it out again. But a week? No, I’d say that a week would be too long. I hope this was helpful. You guys have a great day. I’m going to put links to canning apple butter and canning applesauce in the article below. If you need directions on how to do that, check them out. We’ll talk to you later. Bye!

Related Pages

Apple Butter Recipe in Quarts?

Chas made 11 quarts of apple butter. Is it safe to open the jars, bring it back to a boil, and then recan it in smaller jars?

Pear Butter Recipe

A bit of orange and nutmeg in this pear butter recipe makes it delicious.

Peach Butter Recipe

A slow cooker is the easiest way to cook this peach butter recipe. You need low temperatures for a long time without scorching.

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Adapted from: The National Center for Home Food Preservation and the Ball Blue Book.

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How to Make Apple Butter (with Canning Instructions)

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Apple butter is a luscious fruit spread made by slow-cooking apples until their sugars naturally caramelize. Historically, apple butter was cooked over a very low fire, sometimes for days at a time, until the apples transformed into a deep brown and took on a thick consistency.

These days, we can cheat a bit in our modern kitchens, but it’s still just as tasty as ever.

How to Make Apple Butter

Making apple butter is all about low, slow cooking. If someone asks you how to make apple butter, don’t bother answering if they’re not patient. It’s a fun little test, maybe just pause 15 seconds before answering, and if they can’t handle the suspense…tell them this is not a recipe for them.

The tradition of making apple butter goes all the way back to the middle ages, long before home canning was developed as a method of food preservation. The apples would be cooked on a copper kettle over a very low fire for at least 10-12 hours, stirring with a long wooden paddle. The low slow heat would cause natural apple sugars to caramelize, resulting in a deep brown color, and rich caramel flavor.

While traditional, slow-cooked apple butter is absolutely delicious, the method was actually developed as a method of food preservation. Sugar is a natural preservative, and making apple butter the traditional way concentrated the sugar in the apples to extend their shelf life as a spread. Sealed hot with a bit of oil or wax, apple butter would keep for quite a long time.

At this point in history, sugar mostly in the form of honey was expensive and a taste of something naturally sweet was a real treat. Traditional apple butter didn’t contain added sweeteners, and it actually was so naturally sweet that a bit of cider vinegar was sometimes added to add a tang and balance out the caramelized apple sugar.

These days, apple butter is often made at home using shortcut methods that take a lot less time. The addition of brown sugar isn’t traditional, but it does save a lot of time in the canning kitchen. Most modern recipes also include quite a bit of vinegar, as a nod to tradition, but largely to balance out the high levels of added sugar.

Know that anything you add to apple butter, besides the apples themselves, is completely optional and based on your own taste. Apples are acidic enough to be safely canned at home, and most modern apple varieties are sweeter than medieval varieties meaning they likely have enough sugar to stand on their own. Suggestions for added sugar, vinegar and spices are just that…suggestions.

I’m going to take you through the best way to make traditional slow-cooked apple butter, as well as the basics of canning apple butter at home.

Crock Pot Apple Butter Recipe

Copper kettles and low cooking fires are largely a thing of the past, but slow cookers are in just about every kitchen these days. No need to spend hours tending the fire and endlessly stirring when a slow cooker actually cooks even slower than the old-fashioned method.

Start by peeling, coring and chopping apples. If you’re ambitious, save the peels and cores to make apple scrap vinegar or apple jelly. Depending on how efficient you work, 5 pounds of apples will result in about 3 pounds of peeled/cored apple chunks (or roughly 12 cups).

I started with 5 pounds, but I’m pretty sure my oval crockpot could have held more like 10 pounds of apples and yielded considerably more apple butter.

The apples need a bit of liquid to get started, but it doesn’t take much. Add about 1/2 cup of apple juice, apple cider or just plain water to the bottom of the crockpot. Turn the slow cooker on high and put on the lid.

In about 2 hours, the apples will have softened and the whole pot will be bubbling. Remove the lid, and give the pot a good stir.

Your goal here is to break up the apples and basically make applesauce. You need applesauce before you can make apple butter, and if you really want to cheat you can just start with applesauce. It may take more time for the slow cooker to break down the apples to a sauce, depending on the variety.

If you want to save time, you can simply do this part on the stove before transferring the cooked sauce to a slow cooker. It only takes about 20-30 minutes to make applesauce on the stovetop, but it’ll take a few hours in the slow cooker to reach the same point.

Some people also use an immersion blender here to really break up the apples, but they’re going to be cooking for a long time and it’s not really necessary. They’ll naturally come apart on their own.

Once the apples are cooked, and you’ve got them stirred into a sauce it’s time to change gears for a real slow cooker apple butter. This is when you’d add any other ingredients (sugar, spices, vinegar, etc) and then turn the heat way down. If you’re really patient, choose “keep warm,” but even “low” is going to take a very long time.

Then use a chopstick or wooden skewer to pin the lid of the slow cooker just slightly open. The goal is to have the lid on to retain heat, but also have the lid just cracked so that moisture can escape helping concentrate the apple butter. Slow cooking is key, that’s what’s going to allow those sugars to slowly caramelize without burning.

Depending on your slow cooker and the natural moisture in the apples, slow cooker apple butter can take between 12 and 36 hours to cook. Be sure to stir it every 3-4 hours, and a bit more often as it gets closer to finished. When leaving it overnight, you can be extra safe and just turn the crockpot off or you can turn it all the way down to “keep warm.”

My crockpot apple butter made with 5 pounds of apples took about 30 hours, mostly on “low” but I turned it down to “keep warm” overnight as a safety precaution.

In the end, you’ll have a thick, rich, caramel-flavored spread…

Stovetop Apple Butter

So I’ll admit, stovetop apple butter is a bit trickier. Sure, it’s much quicker, but it’s very hard to make it right. Most modern stoves just don’t cook quite low enough to make apple butter without burning it on the stovetop.

If you search “stovetop apple butter” and then scroll through the pictures, you’ll actually notice that the texture is very different than just about every crockpot apple butter recipe out there.

It’s more of a thick apple sauce, and not quite the dark brown spread with a velvety texture that’s characteristic of homemade apple butter.

That said, it can be done assuming you have a thick-bottomed pot (such as an enameled cast iron dutch oven) and a stove with a low simmer burner. Be sure to stir it at least every 5-10 minutes, and a stovetop apple butter will be ready in about 3 hours (give or take, depending on the apple varieties and your stove).

The process for how to make apple butter on a stovetop is exactly the same as crockpot apple butter, just a bit quicker. Bring everything to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring the apples to break them up into a smooth sauce. Then turn the heat all the way down to very low, and place a chopstick or wooden skewer in the pot to hold the lid open just a crack.

Cook very low for another 2-3 hours, stirring every 5-10 minutes, especially as it gets close to done.

Apple Butter Recipes

Thus far I’ve talked about technique, but some of you are thinking, come on…just give me an apple butter recipe already.

The thing is, making apple butter is all about technique, and the recipe is more or less up to your personal tastes. Like cinnamon, then add it. Want a sweeter apple butter? Then add sugar. Want a hint of tart? Add cider vinegar or lemon juice.

It really is that simple.

My homemade apple butter is just apples, but I know that’s not going to be to everyone’s taste. I like low-sugar jams, and a no sugar apple butter recipe suits me just fine. What can I say, I’m a traditionalist?

But if you do want to try a time-tested apple butter recipe with a bit more in it than just apples, here are a few to get you started…

Start with any quantity of apples, and cook them into applesauce with a bit of water. Then measure the strained applesauce, and to each cup of sauce, add 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp allspice. (This apple butter recipe is quite sweet, and a bit heavy on cloves in my opinion, but lovely otherwise.)

This unique recipe recommends you start with 2 parts apples (peeled and cored) and 1 part apple cider. Those are the only ingredients, but with all that cider there’s plenty of extra apple flavor and sugar. The apples are boiled in the cider on high until it reaches applesauce stage, then it’s turned to very low and cooked slowly, stirring frequently until thickened to apple butter.
Canning for a New Generation

A relatively new canning book, I love it because it has interesting recipes and reasonable amounts of sugar. They suggest starting with 6 lbs apples and adding 2 cups apple cider, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, and allspice.

I’ve purposely not listed the recipes from the Ball Canning Books, which suggest adding a cup of sugar for every pound of fruit (before peeling). That actually works out to more like 2 cups of sugar to every cup of apple puree, which is way more sugar than I put in even the sweetest jams.

Things to avoid in an apple butter recipe:

There are plenty of bad apple butter recipes on the internet (and in books for that matter) and when I was first starting to preserve my own food at home I made several of them. Here’s what to watch out for…

Too Much Vinegar

The national center for food preservation has instructions for canning apple butter, and while they’re great on canning safety, their food recipes are often a bit strange. They suggest adding 2 cups of vinegar to 8 pounds of apples. I made that recipe and I actually had to throw it away because it made me gag. Don’t add more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice to a 5 to 8 pound batch of apple butter.

Too Much Sugar

This is a matter of personal taste, but at a certain point, it’s no longer apple butter and it’s basically apple jam or apple candy. Avoid recipes that have excessive amounts of sugar. Keep in mind that most jam recipes have around 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar per pound of fruit, and if you’re approaching that amount you’re making jam. Apple butter can be made without added sugar, and I’d suggest only adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar per pound of fruit at the most. Ideally more like 1-2 tablespoons per pound.
Too Much Spice

Cinnamon and other warm spices can be intense (or bitter) if added in large quantities. I’d suggest no more than 1/2 tsp spices per pound of apples.

Canning Apple Butter

Once you’ve made apple butter, it’s not quite “preserved” yet. A few jars will last several weeks in the refrigerator without canning, but if you truly want a preserve that’s going to last all winter, your best bet is canning apple butter.

Apples are naturally high acid fruits, with a pH somewhere between 3.2 and 4.0. That means they’re just fine for water bath canning without any added acid. Sugar is also optional, and it’s only added to apple butter canning recipes for flavor, not safety.

The biggest concern when canning apple butter is removing bubbles. I’d suggest using straight-sided canning jars like wide-mouth pint mason jars for big batches or straight-sided half-pint jam jars. Both of those are much easier to pack cleanly without air bubbles.

This time I was trying to be fancy, and I used a set of short wide-mouth half-pint jars, which I regret. They look lovely, but they’re really hard to de-bubble.

Fill the canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace and de-bubble them as best you can. Adjust headspace, wipe the rims clean, and cap with two-part canning lids. Process apple butter in a water bath canner for 5 minutes for half-pints and pints, or 10 minutes for quarts.

Turn off the canner and leave the jars in the hot water for an additional 5 minutes (this stabilizes the temperature and prevents siphoning as the jars are removed). Remove the jars to a towel on the counter and allow them to cool.

The lids should “ping” closed to seal within a few hours. Check seals after 24 hours and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.

Apple Butter Recipes

It’s one thing to tell you how to make homemade apple butter, but the real question is how to use it. Sure, you can slather a bit on toast, and that’s downright delicious. Where apple butter really shines, in my opinion, is in baked goods.

It’s basically a creamy concentrated caramel apple, and it adds amazing flavor to muffins, pancakes, and smoothies.

Recipes Using Apple Butter

Now that you have a batch of homemade apple butter, it’s time to find some tasty apple butter recipes!

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