What is apple butter made from

Apple Butter

Learn how to make apple butter and fill your house with the aroma of cooking apples, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Our apple butter recipe is great on toast or spooned into oatmeal!

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

It’s hard to find any apple butter, let alone good apple butter in the grocery store these days. Making apple butter is a great way to preserve the fruits of an apple harvest.

What is Apple Butter?

Apple butter is made by slowly cooking pureed apples for over an hour. The sugars in the apples caramelize as the puree cooks, giving the apple butter its rich, sweet flavor and dark color.

In contrast to what the name implies, there is no «butter» in apple butter. The name comes from its smooth and buttery texture. Apple butter is delicious on buttered toast.

Don’t Throw Away Your Apple Cores!

Although apple butter takes time to make, the upfront part is easy. You do not have to peel or core the apples.

The pectin for firming up the resulting apple butter resides mostly in the cores and there is a lot of flavor in the apple peels. After the first cooking, these parts get discarded as the pulp is run through a food mill.

This recipe produces a traditional apple butter, which is both sweet and sour, the addition of cider vinegar just intensifying the flavor and giving it its tangy edge. It’s seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and lemon.

For more information on apple varieties, check out our Guide to Apples.

The Difference Between Applesauce and Apple Butter

Apple butter is a smoother, more concentrated form of applesauce. The methods for making the two both start out similarly, by slow-cooking apples until they’re soft and mushy. Applesauce will be ready at this saucy stage, sometimes with the addition of sugar and/or spices to flavor it. But to make apple butter, you puree the stewed apples and cook them down further so more liquid evaporates and the apples caramelize.

Alternatives to Stovetop Cooking

Don’t love standing at the stove stirring for ages? These two methods are way more hands-off.

• Microwave: Instead of cooking the seasoned puree on the stovetop in Step 5, cook it uncovered in a microwave, on medium heat setting to simmer, for around 30 minutes. If you do this, monitor the cooking every 5 or 10 minutes. Microwaves vary in their power.
• Slow cooker: In Step 5, transfer the seasoned puree to a slow cooker. Cook on low with the lid ajar (lay spoons across the cooker and set the lid on top) so steam can escape. Stir once every hour or so. Depending on your cooker, it could take up to 5 hours for the apple butter to cook down.

The Best Apples for Apple Butter

Look to softer apples, like Gravenstein, to make apple butter, as they will cook down faster. We also like the tart flavor of Granny Smith apples. Combine different apples to match your taste preferences. We recommend the following varieties:

• Braeburn
• Cortland
• Fuji
• McIntosh
• Golden Delicious
• Jonagold

Learn which apples are best to use in cooking and baking in our guide to apples.

Swaps and Suggestions for Homemade Apple Butter

• Switch up the spices. This recipe calls for cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and some lemon to bring out the flavor, but feel free to play around with others spices such as ginger and nutmeg if you wish.
• Switch up the sweetener. We recommend sticking with white sugar for a straightforward apple flavor. But readers have shared some of the swaps they’ve made in the comments. Check them out!

To Can or Not to Can?

Want to make larger batches of apple butter so you can have jars on hand for later and not worry about refrigerating them? Planning to give jars as gifts? If so, sterilize glass jars for canning. We offer detailed directions for water bath canning in the recipe below.

If you want to eat your apple butter up quickly, skip the canning. It keeps in the fridge for weeks as long as you’re not dipping dirty spoon into it. Or freeze it for later.

NOTE: For this recipe to be safe for canning, the sugar levels should not be reduced lower than to 1/3 cup sugar per 1 cup apple pulp.

Storing and Freezing Apple Butter

• Fresh apple butter will keep in the fridge for at least couple of weeks, if not longer.
• Sealed, canned jars of apple butter will keep for years in the pantry (they’re best used within a year, though). Once opened, they’ll also keep for weeks in the refrigerator.
• Frozen apple butter will keep up to a year.

Ways to Use Your Apple Butter

Whether you spread it on toast, swirl it into oatmeal, or serve it on a cheese plate, you’ll find a plethora of delicious ways to incorporate apple butter.

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What Is Apple Butter and How Do You Make It At Home?

Hint: There’s no butter involved.

There are few things cozier than toast or biscuits with apple butter on a chilly fall day. Nicole McLaughlin shows you what you need to know about everybody’s favorite autumnal fruit spread, including how to make it at home:

What Is Apple Butter?

Contrary to its name, there is no butter involved in the making of apple butter. The fruity spread, which is essentially highly concentrated applesauce, is made by cooking apples with spices (like cinnamon and cloves) or ciders until the sugars are caramelized. This process leaves you with a thick, brown, rich, and powerfully apple-flavored spread.

Apple Butter vs. Applesauce

Since apple butter is cooked much longer than applesauce, it has a totally different consistency. The extra time over the heat makes apple butter thicker and glossier than applesauce. While applesauce is soft and mushy, apple butter has a rich, spreadable texture that’s somewhere between jam and peanut butter.

Also, the sugars in apple butter are more concentrated than applesauce. This gives the spread a longer shelf life than the sauce.

Apple Butter Uses

Use apple butter the way you’d use any fruit spread: Spread it on toast or biscuits, dollop it onto pancakes or waffles, stir it into your oatmeal, or use it to give your baked goods a burst of fruitiness. You can even use apple butter in savory recipes — brush it onto meats (such as pork, chicken, or turkey) before cooking to add delicious fall flavor.

How to Make Apple Butter

If you’ve ever made applesauce, congratulations! You know exactly how to make apple butter: Just cook cored apples with sugar and warm spices like cinnamon and allspice. The only difference? Apple butter cooks longer to achieve its brown color, rich texture, and deep flavor.

It’s traditionally cooked on the stove, but you can also make apple butter with your slow cooker or Instant Pot. «I love Chef John’s recipe,» shares Nicole. «It’s super smooth and spreadable.»

Get Chef John’s Apple Butter Recipe here

For step-by-step instructions, learn How to Make Apple Butter 4 Easy Ways. Plus, check our Beginner’s Guide to Canning and Preserving for expert canning, food safety, and storage tips.

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What Is Apple Butter?

Fall never tasted so good.

Pictured Recipe: Apple Butter

The change in seasons means a change in produce—while saying goodbye to summer berries is always bittersweet, it makes room in our pantry for loads of apples. Whether you couldn’t resist the shiny Honeycrisps at the grocery store or you went crazy picking your own apples at a nearby orchard, one of the best (and easiest) ways to make use of fall apples is with apple butter. Here, we’ll tell you what it is, how to make it and give you a few recipes for using it.

What Is Apple Butter?

Contrary to its name, apple butter does not contain any butter; rather, apple butter is made up of fresh apples (peeled, cored and diced) cooked with apple cider until the apples break down to a jammy consistency. Other ingredients like sugar and spices are added to give it extra flavor, but some cooks rely on the natural sugars in the apples to make it delicious.

Apple Butter versus Applesauce

Apple butter and applesauce are similar. The key difference is that applesauce is made with water and sugar and fewer spices. Applesauce is also eaten on its own as a snack or as a side dish while apple butter, with its more concentrated flavor, is used as a condiment or topping for toast or muffins.

Best Apples for Apple Butter

The apples you choose to use will influence how your apple butter will turn out. Try sweet and mellow apples like Braeburn or Pink Lady apples. Apple butter has a long cooking time and so you also want to choose apples that are soft because they break down quickly and lend the creamiest texture. Steer clear of Granny Smith apples, which are a bit too hard and tart for butter. If Fuji and Golden Delicious are available, they also work well.

Methods for Making Apple Butter

Apple butter can be cooked in a slow-cooker, in a pot on the stovetop or roasted in the oven—there’s a method for any cook! Generally, on the stovetop, you simmer the apples with light or dark brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the cooked apples are very soft, you can run them through a food mill or blender to smooth it out before being cooked down further. When it’s done, stir in lemon juice for balance. For a slow cooker, put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and set it and forget it for 2 to 3 hours. Roasting the apples is the absolute simplest apple butter recipe and method—the apples are roasted with apple juice in a roasting pan, mashed with a potato masher and then roasted a little longer.

Ways to Use Apple Butter

There are few breakfasts that give you a taste of fall quite like apple butter on toast does, but this sauce can be used all sorts of ways to boost a meal or dish. It can be made into a topping for pancakes and waffles, mixed into a cake batter or even muffins. If you’re ambitious, you can experiment with working it into fruit bars, glazing chicken breasts with it, slathering it on a ham sandwich or just swirling it into oatmeal.

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What Is Apple Butter and How Do I Use It?

If you’e not cooking with this fall inspired condiment, you should be.

I recently found myself purchasing a jar of apple butter because I was inspired by a chicken recipe that called for it. I was pretty unfamiliar with this condiment, and it led me to ask myself, how is this any different from applesauce? Is there butter in it? What else can I use this for now that I have a huge jar of it? SO. MANY. APPLE. BUTTER. QUESTIONS. Don’t worry, this story has a great ending, because I now have answers to all of these questions, and so much more.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way here. Just because it has the word “butter” in its name does not mean that there is actual butter in this product (in the same way that there’s no butter in peanut butter, you feel me?). What this product basically boils down to (pun extremely intended) is a more concentrated version of applesauce. The latter consists of apples that are cooked—typically with cider, sugar, and warming spices—and then pureed or milled. The flavors of applesauce and apple butter are quite similar, the only difference is that it’s much more concentrated in apple butter.

What distinguishes apple butter is that the apple mixture is cooked much longer than apple sauce, which helps to cook off some extra moisture and create caramelization throughout. Caramelization means it will take on a much darker color and possess a rich, almost nutty flavor. Usually, the apples are cooked in cider, sugar, and spices (just like applesauce), then puréed, then put back over heat for an extended amount of time to cook out all of the water. The texture of apple butter is much firmer and more spreadable than the more watery, (loose) pudding-like consistency of applesauce.

Charles Walton; Styling: Mary Lyn Hill

So when can you use it? Well, it’s a fall flavor bomb. So any time you’re looking to impart a strong, fruity, fall flavor into a dish, apple butter is a great condiment to grab. Plus, it’s delicious in both sweet and savory applications. Add a layer to your next apple pie or apple crumble bars and it’s potent, apple-forward flavor will not disappoint. Incorporate it in all of your fall baking—muffins, scones, cookies, breads, cinnamon rolls, you name it! Apple butter is a worthy addition. Smear it on a piece of buttered toast or add a spoonful to a bowl of yogurt or oatmeal. Since it’s quite similar to a jam or preserves, it’d be a lovely addition to your next autumn charcuterie board.

If you’re going the savory route, layer it into marinades, braises, reductions, and soups for a contrasting sweet note with a heavy hand of warm, cozy spices. Apples pair nicely with chicken and pork (throw in some fresh sage and thyme for the ultimate fall palate), so spoon a few dollops into your next braise. Since you’re probably dying to know what I did with my apple butter, I layered it into some prosciutto-wrapped, blue cheese-stuffed chicken breasts. Yeah. If that doesn’t make you want to throw on your favorite cable knit sweater and knee-high boots while sipping a pumpkin spice latte, I don’t know what will.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can always make your own apple butter at home rather than opting for store-bought. Plan accordingly—the apples need to cook for a long time in order for them to expel all that liquid. Every apple butter recipe is a little different and the cook time will depend on if you cook it on the stove in a Dutch oven or in a slow cooker. This could be anywhere from 1 hour to 10. (Worry not, this would be a great time to binge the entire Halloweentown franchise.) Trust me, the extra effort is worth it. This stuff is in another league from applesauce. Any more questions? I don’t think so. The only thing left to do here is to grab a jar and get cooking.

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