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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Vegan Crock-Pot Apple Butter



Time to make some apple butter, so I am sharing this apple butter recipe with you all that was sent to me from Amanda Reynolds who's a fan of KA's FB page and blog... Thank You, Amanda!

Vegan Crock-Pot Apple Butter

5.5 quart crock-pot
8-9 lbs of apples
2 c of unrefined dark brown sugar or dark brown beet sugar*
1 T fresh ginger (or 1 t ground powdered ginger, but I highly recommend fresh)
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground nutmeg
3 T fresh ground cinnamon
½ t salt
½ c apple cider vinegar

You can use any variety of apples that you wish.

Peel, core, and chop the apples finely. Transfer the apples from the chopping board into the crock pot.

Mix the sugar, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the apples 1/3 at a time and mix until the apples are coated in the sugar mixture.

Pour the apple cider vinegar over the top.

Cook on high the first hour, then turn to low and let cook for at least 12 hours, stirring every 4 hours or so.

I do this overnight and just get up and stir it once (note: tradition in our household mandates that we make oatmeal with the half cooked apple butter in the morning).

Depending on the kind of apples and how hot your crock-pot gets start checking after 12 hours.

You are looking for the apples to cook down by about half and become a mush. I usually let them cook for 14 hours. After the apples have cooked for 12-16 hours, turn the crock-pot up to high, and take the lid off. Let the liquid cook out for 2+ hours.

At this point, I love the slightly chunky texture, but if you want a creamy apple butter you can blend some of it in a blender or in the crock-pot with an immersion blender.

I freeze the apple butter in 2 c batches in ziplock freezer bags, flat, for up to one year. 1 lb of apples equals about 1 c of apple butter.

Apple butter takes a long time to make, but it’s nice to make it in the crock-pot because you can leave the house with it cooking and not worry about it. Making it on the stove requires a lot more time and attention then the crock-pot method.

*normal refined cane sugar is not vegan as animal bone char is used in the refinement process








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