Apple Butter!

To make a batch of apple butter, you need start with applesauce! Apple butter is delicious with biscuits, "double-butter" sandwiches (peanut butter/apple butter), and, well, it's just good :o)
Put your applesauce in a crock pot or roaster oven. For my applesauce, I used about 3/4 of a bushel of apples, of several varieties. Keep in mind, this is what I do/have done and it works well. You may need to adjust the amounts to your family's needs. You can also try the recipe found here!

Have on hand: Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, brown sugar, white sugar.

For this batch, I added a few teaspoons of cinnamon, about 2 teaspoons each of allspice and cloves, 2 cups of sugar (1 1/2 white, 1/2 brown) and stirred it around and let it simmer at 200 degrees in the roaster oven (with a crock pot, use the low setting). I left it in there simmering (stirring every few hours) for a good 24 hours. It will cook down. You want it to thicken up a bit. I wound up adding a little more sugar after taste-testing.

Get your canning equipment ready. I start getting ready by first filling up my water-bath canner and turning it on high, to get the water boiling. Wash your lids, bands, and jars; then put your lids and bands in a smaller pan of hot water on the stove, and let them simmer until time to use them. The lid-lifter in the picture was about $2 at Meijers (saves burned fingers!). After my jars are clean, you can set them in the microwave on high for a few minutes to sterilize them. You want them to be hot when putting your hot apple butter in!

Start filling hot jars with your hot apple butter (I do about 2 at a time) with a wide funnel. Place a hot lid on your jar and screw the band on. Place each jar on your canner rack as they are filled.

When your canner rack is full of jars, lower it (carefully!) into the canner. Cover and process for 10 minutes.

After your 10 minutes is up, lift out each jar with a jar lifter and place on a dish towel. Listen for that beautiful pop! They are then ready to store in the pantry. My yield was 14 jars and some left over. I put what was left in a bowl and passed out spoons to let the kids taste. They loved it!