Shelley: Food Obsessed: Apple butter

It feels like fall....inside. It's still about 85-90 degrees outside with about 70% humidity (hey, that's low for FL!) and everything is still very green. Inside in the 75 degree A/C, with the scent of apples cooking and cinnamon, it sure feels like fall in my kitchen!!

I recently found a vegan blog that I really like - ohsheglows.com. She posted a few days ago a recipe for apple butter. I read it and it sounded easy enough (you don't even have to peel the apples!), so I decided to give it a whirl.

It's delicious!! Incredibly easy as well!

First you slice the apples and place them in a crockpot. (The recipe calls for different kinds of apples, but I only used Mcintosh because they were on sale, sold in bulk.)

Let the apples cook for about 3 hours on high heat (the recipe says 4 hours for 5 lbs of apples, but it took less than 3 hours for me), stirring periodically.

When the apples are soft, mash with a potato masher.

Transfer apple mixture to food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer back to crockpot and cook at high heat for about an hour, or until it is the consistency that you prefer. At this point, you can add what seasonings you like. I added a dash of ground ginger, a dash of Allspice, about 2 tsp of cinnamon and 2 tsp. of ground cloves. I also added less than 1/4 cup of brown sugar, so my recipe wasn't exactly totally "naked", but for 5 lbs of apples, I didn't think 1/4 cup of sugar was bad!