Family Memories and Apple Butter

Fall is closing in on East Tennessee. You can see it in the trees and feel it in the air. It happens to be my favorite time of the year, not just because October first is my birthday but because I love the smells and feel of fall.

One of my favorite memories was my Granny Laura cooking her Apple Butter recipe, over an outdoor fire, in a large copper bottom pot. The apple smells floating through the air as my aunts and mother would peel, core and slice the apples for their mother to cook down to a deep red brown color. Granny Laura would add her spices and stir the hot mixture of sugar and apples until she was satisfied she had made the best apple butter possible.

It was an all day affair. My cousins and I would play in the yard. At times, we would be called to bring more wood to the fire as to keep the apple butter cooking at the same temperature at all times. Most times my Grandpa Birdine would be in charge of the fire but he was known to wonder off until Granny Laura called his name, loud and clear, for him to come back and stoke the fire or to keep one of us grandchildren away from the flames.

When Granny Laura deemed the apple butter was done, clean canning jars would be brought to her and filled one by one. Grandpa Birdine would tighten each jar lid then turn the jar upside down so the heat of the apple butter would speed the sealing of the jar.

One of my aunts or my mother would make a big pan of biscuits so could sample our day's work. Nothing can beat the taste of warm apple butter, cold butter and a hot homemade biscuit, on a cool fall night.

While I can't be part of your own Apple Butter making memory, I do want to give you this recipe that you can make in your own kitchen. Maybe it will give your family one of their favorite fall memories, too.

Easy Crock Pot Apple Butter

Cooking on high, it takes all day to make this flavorful apple butter but because you are cooking in a crock pot you can go away and do other things while it cooks.
Ingredients:
12 - 14 sweet-tart apples (like a Winesap)
2 cups apple cider or juice
sugar
ground cinnamon
ground allspice
ground cloves
freshly ground nutmeg
Preparation:
Lightly spray the inside of the crockpot with your favorite cooking spray. Don't peel, but wash, core and quarter the apples. Put in crockpot. Stir in cider or juice. Cover and cook on high for 2 - 4 hours.
Put the soft cooked fruit in food mill to remove skins and any stray seeds. Measure fruit back into the crockpot. For each pint (2 cups) of fruit add: 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/2 ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg. Stir well. Cover and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours. Stir every 2 hours. Remove cover after 3 hours to allow fruit and juice to cook down. Spoon into hot canning jars and proceed according to canning jar directions. Or spoon into freezer containers. Allow apple butter to cool and then store in freezer.

Now go make that big pan of biscuits and enjoy.

Faylee