Maple Apple Butter

The Ungourmet made the comment that she wondered what it would be like to add maple syrup to apple butter. This idea certainly sounded good enough to make me curious. I was pondering how well apple butter would cook down if you used syrup, when it occurred to me that I probably wouldn't pay for real maple syrup any way: I would use maple flavored syrup. Then I decided the thing to do was flavor apple butter with maple flavoring rather than cinnamon.

It was too tempting of an idea to pass up. I had to try it and I am glad I did, because it is delicous.


Maple Apple Butter
(Printable Recipe)

Use one of the following methods to prepare the pulp. As always, I recommend using Fruit Fresh when cutting up the fruit.

Method 1: To prepare the pulp, first quarter the apples. Cook apples until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the apples through a food mill.

Method 2: Peel, quarter and core apples. Cook apples until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Process in a blender or food processor.

Measure pulp. For each quart of pulp, add 2 cups sugar, 2 tsp maple flavoring, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The apple butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.

Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

Read more...

Canning Plum Butter

I had some brown sugar that I wanted to use up. At my house it tends to dry up before it gets used. I also had some plums that I wanted to can so I came up with the idea of using brown sugar in plum butter. The amount of brown sugar that I had was about 1/2 of what I needed so a also used white sugar.


It turns out that I can't really taste the brown sugar in the finished product. However the whole experiment made me curious about what it would taste like to make apple butter with brown sugar instead of white sugar. I just used up my brown sugar, and now I feel half tempted to buy some more just for another experiment.

I feel like I am being pretty redundant, in writing a recipe for plum butter, since I usually make all of my fruit butters pretty much the same. It is fun some times though to experiment with changing the spices. I think using lemon peel in plum butter rather than cinnamon is a nice change of pace.

Plum Butter
(Printable Recipe)

Use one of the following methods to prepare the pulp. As always, I recommend using Fruit Fresh when cutting up the fruit.

Method 1: Quarter pitted plums. Cook plums until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the plums through a food mill.

Method 2: Peel, quarter and pit plums. Cook plums until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Process in a blender or food processor.

Measure pulp. For each quart of pulp, add 2 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The plum butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.

Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

Read more...

Canning Pear Butter

I was looking at the recipe for pear butter in The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving and pondering why they would give instructions that seem to me like the hard way of doing things. It actually took awhile for it to occur to me that people who don't do much canning might not even own a food mill. I was a little slow to figure things out, but I did finally realize that perhaps I should write both instructions.


My recipe for pear butter is reall basically the same as apple butter, except that I use a little less sugar.

Pear Butter
(Yield is about 4 half-pint jars for every dozen pears used)
(Printable Recipe)

Use one of the following methods to prepare the pulp. As always, I recommend using Fruit Fresh when cutting up the fruit.

Method 1: To prepare the pulp, first quarter the pears. Cook pears until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the pears through a food mill.

Method 2: Peel, quarter and core pears. Cook pears until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Process in a blender or food processor.

Measure pulp. For each quart of pulp, add 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The pear butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.

Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

Read more...

Canning Apple Sauce and Apple Butter

There are so many fun things to do with apples, that I think I could write 3 or 4 posts just on apples alone. Since apple Sauce and apple butter start out the same way, I figured that it is logical to discuss them both in one post. In fact you can prepare them both in one day. Just prepare the pulp, set some of it aside for apple butter, can the apple sauce and while it is processing in the water bath, take out the pulp that you set aside and start preparing your apple butter.


Though some canning books say to peel and core the apples, you don't really need to because the skin and seeds are separated when you run the apples through your food mill any way.

Apple Sauce
(yield is about one quart for every 3 pounds of apples used)
(Printable Recipe)

To prepare the pulp, first quarter the apples. Fruit Fresh is handy for preventing the apples from browning while you are cutting them up. Cook apples until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the apples through a food mill.

If desired, you may add sugar to taste to the apple pulp. I won't recommend a specific amount of sugar, since different varieties of apples vary in how sweet they are, and people have different preferences for how sweet they want it. In general, recipes tend to call for anywhere from about 2 tablespoons of sugar per quart of pulp all the way up to 3/4 cup of sugar per quart of pulp.

Bring the apple sauce to a boil and fill hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath. Process pints for 15 minutes or quarts for 20 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

Apple Butter
(yield is about 4 half-pint jars)
(Printable Recipe)

1 quart of apple pulp (see instructions for applesauce)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves or nutmeg (or both)

Combine all ingredients and cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The apple butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.

Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes


Read more...