Apple Butter

I've mentioned before that we have an excellent source of fresh apples from LJ's parents.  Since we receive so many apples I decided to try to create apple butter so that we could enjoy the apples all winter long.

Fruit butter in general is a pretty simple process that just takes a fair amount of time so it is best done on a weekend (though time doesn't really matter for me since I still haven't been able to find a job).  I used the general fruit butter guide from the Food in Jars website with a mix of Braeburn and Granny Smith apples.

I cored and chopped the apples and tossed them in a big kettle with a little water.  I cooked the apples until they were soft and then pureed them with my immersion blender.

You can see that the butter has cooked down from the residue on the side of the kettle.  Once the butter was thick and nicely spreadable I ladled it in to sterilized jars and processed them in a boiling water bath.

The butter is delicious on a toasted English muffin or pancakes.