What To Do With Apples?

So, remember the apple trees I posted about in the winter?  The ones that had completely overgrown with neglect.  The ones that I really had ZERO expectation of doing anything this year.

Well, to my huge surprise the tree that I whacked the most gave us quite a few good sized apples!  Hooray!  Course it's sister next to it that I didn't spend as much time on gave us a ton of really SMALL ones.  Definitely not worth my time to do anything with right now.  Grateful though!

We've already made our fair share of dessert items with the berries, so decided to do something easy with the apples.  Apple butter...in the crock pot.

Excellent, I know.

First, I enlisted the help of my eldest children to core and inspect.  I did not peel the apples as one would do for apple sauce.  The peels have lots of good nutrients and apple butter does a good job at disguising the peels.  Show you that in a minute...

This batch of apples filled the crock pot.  Then I added 1 TBS of vanilla.  Plugged in and turned on low for 8 hours.  Love my crock pot!

After the 8 hours, I mushed up the apples and removed a few tough peels.  Then added 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar.  Then 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of ground cloves.

It was kind of late that night so I just adjusted my setting to "keep warm" for the night so I could finish the job the next day.

If you don't like chunks in your apple butter (like my children) then puree the mixture in a blender or food processor.  Shhhh....you'll never know the peels were left in.

Then scoop the apples into jars to can or eat immediately.  Non- pressure cooked/canned jars will last several weeks in the fridge.

Absolutely yummy!!

My dad was a huge apple butter fan.  He ordered in bulk most of my childhood.  I've been thinking about him a lot lately as he passed away 9 years ago in June.  So many things I miss and respect about him.

Dad, I know you would love this recipe!