hello this is chef john from food wishes
comm with apple butter that's right have
you ever been eating applesauce and
thought to yourself this is good
but i wish it was like a thousand times
better well my friends that is a very
good way to describe apple butter and
there's more good news the technique for
making this stuff is very very easy
except please don't confuse easy with
fast okay while super super simple
this takes many many many many hours but
the results are so well worth it as
hopefully you're gonna find out so with
that let's go ahead get started and
first up we're gonna cut up about 5
pounds of apples and my favorite variety
for this would be Granny Smith but any
classic cooking apple will work and what
we'll do before we start cutting is go
ahead and take out the core which if you
have one of these cores is pretty easy
since all you gotta do is sort of plunge
that down through the middle and then
once that core is been removed with
hopefully all the seeds we will simply
cut this into quarters and then you
could if you want just our slice in
these but I like to give it one more cut
and then slice them into about 1 inch
pieces all right so that's one way you
can do these but let's say for the sake
of argument you don't have an apple
corer you could also do it this way ok
we'll make one cut straight down next to
the core right about where you think the
seeds would start and then once that
first slice is taken off we'll set it
down on the flat side and then we'll
make another cut straight down again
close but not too close to the core and
then we'll simply do that two more times
and while you will lose a little more
Apple in the first method it is still a
pretty fast and effective way to do this
and you may remember this technique from
such videos as Ben Franklin breakfast
Bowl
oh and as you may have noticed we did
not peel these so that's gonna save us a
bunch of time but that's not the only
reason I also think this comes out
tasting better and looking better and
feeling better since it's gonna actually
get thicker if we don't peel them so if
you've been peeling apples all your life
for apple butter I'm sorry but you
really did waste all that time but hey
now you know and then what we're gonna
do once we have our 5 pounds of apples
prepped is go ahead and transfer them
into whatever we're gonna cook this in
which could be a roasting pan for the
oven or a heavy bottomed stockpot for
the stove top or is in my case into a
slow cooker which i think is by far the
best and easiest method and once those
have been transferred in we'll go ahead
and add the rest of the ingredients
which will include a little touch of
white sugar just a mere cup and a half
as well as a half a cup of brown sugar
and I know that it looks like a lot but
it's roughly half of what most people
use in case that makes you feel any
better and then to that we're also going
to need a little bit of salt as well as
of course some cinnamon and then we'll
finish up with some freshly grated
nutmeg which I took the liberty of
freshly grated earlier and then last but
not least for our spices we'll do a
little pinch of allspice which
apparently tastes like all the spices
put together and then in a little plot
twist for some acidity we're going to do
some apple cider vinegar okay a lot of
people like to use lemon juice in this
but personally I think the cider vinegar
works out better and then we'll finish
up with a splash of cold fresh water and
that's it well go ahead and take a spoon
and give this a mix and once all that's
been stirred together it is now ready to
cook and cook and cook for a really
really really long time and if we are
using a slow cooker what I like to do is
start it covered on the highest setting
until it starts giving up its liquid and
starts getting a little bit soupy which
is gonna take a little while I mean it's
called the slow cooker for a reason so
even on the higher setting this did take
a good while to get to this point and
then what we'll do once this mixture
does come up to temperature and start to
soften up and get nice and juicy is turn
it down to the lower setting and let it
cook uncovered for many many many many
hours and exactly how many is gonna
depend on your slow cooker and other
variables but as usual we're not gonna
go by time we are gonna go by appearance
but anyway what we want to do is cook
this on low for as long as it takes
until it looks like this at which point
I'm going to grab an immersion blender
and blend this smooth which really is
quite a simple step if you have one of
these stick blenders but if you don't
don't worry you can just transfer it
into a blender and then transfer her
back of course being very careful it's
hot all right we never want you burning
yourself especially if you're gonna
blame me and we do want to get this
pretty smooth but we are gonna pass this
through a strainer or later or at least
I am you do
you want but like I said I do want a
puree that's pretty smooth and that's it
we're still not even close to being done
since once pureed we're gonna continue
cooking this uncovered on low until it
reduces even further and gets thicker
and darker and even more intensely
delicious another than stirring it once
in a while there's really nothing to do
except wait and wait and wait some more
okay so the only way to screw this up is
in patience let it cook let it cook let
it cook until it's at least as thick and
dark as this and then what we'll do once
we've determined its cook long enough is
go ahead and pass that through a fine
mesh strainer and while this step is
technically optional it's only gonna
take a couple minutes and since you just
spent like 10 hours getting up to this
point that doesn't seem like that big of
a deal but anyway you decide I mean you
are after all the john sutter of your
apple butter that's not really a butter
raise your hand if you're disappointed
there's no butter in this I know me too
but it's fine don't worry we're gonna
put butter on whatever we put this on
first but anyway we'll go ahead and pass
that through a strainer at which point
we can go ahead and transfer that into
whatever we're gonna store it in and
please know you're not going to be able
to see the final appearance until it's
fully cooled okay that color is gonna
deepen and it's gonna thicken up and
hopefully once fully cooled it should
look something like this which i think
is just absolutely gorgeous and at this
point it's ready to serve on so many
things right maybe a cheese biscuit or a
piece of buttered toast or in my case
English muffin but no matter would you
serve this on prepare to be blown away
by its intense
appley flavor or you know those sticky
brown juices are sort of bubble out of
an apple pie that is this in a spread
form all right when you make a batch of
this it's basically like being able to
have apple pie anytime you want and by
the way if you stopped watching this
video because you don't have a slow
cooker you shouldn't have because in the
blog post I'm gonna tell you how you can
do this with that one but anyway that's
it
how I do apple butter it's always been a
little shocking that apple sauce is so
popular in stores but you almost never
see this stuff I mean who knows maybe
it's too flavorful and they're afraid
people can't handle it
but anyway thanks to this video it
doesn't matter because now you have the
technology to make your own so I really
do hope you give this a try soon head
over to food wishes comm for all the
ingredient amounts of more info as usual
and as always enjoy
you