Thank you! Its easy toooo!
show pics if you do this!
Kat
Okay-here they are.
I must admit-I did a marmalade again. And failed (again). I just have bad luck with marmalades. At least this one jelled up (unlike my last failure). But the rind never softened and it was so bitter that it was inedible (and I like bitter marmalades).
So, thanks to your timely reminder, apple butter moved right to the top of the list.
I started with 20 pounds of mixed apples (mostly Granny Smith and Gala).
About 3 cups of unfiltered & unsweetened apple cider.
Quite a few glugs of apple cider vinegar.
The zest and juice of 3 lemons.
Quite a bit of brown sugar.
Several cups of regular granulated sugar.
1/4 - 1/2 cup of molasses
1/2 cup or so of honey
Cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, ginger, allspice, cloves, cardamom-some.
Yes-for this, I pretty much cook without a net. Whatever seems to be needed to make it taste right.
I do my apple butter in big batches in a roaster oven.
This is the start with the peeled/cored apples, apple and lemon juice, some sugar and the starting bunch of spices.
I start them at about 250-300F and after about 2-3 hours, mash them with a potato masher to get them ready for the overnight cook.
Then it all goes overnight at 200F to really thicken up and come together. I leave the lid propped on the wooden spoons so that some of the liquid can evaporate some to thicken things up. I run it through a food mill to get it really smooth and to make sure to get any seeds or skin that might have slipped through when I was peeling/coring. I add any sugar that needs to be added (I usually go light on the first addition as it is easier to add sugar at this point than it is to somehow remove it:>) and spices (it needed more cinnamon when I checked). I then let it cook for a couple more hours and this is what it looks like when it is ready to can.
And here is my final yield. 18 jars of apple butter and a house that smells of apples and spices. Yum.
I had already made 7 dozen or so other jars of jam/jelly (cherry jam, raspberry jam, blackberry jam, pomegranate jelly, 3-berry jam, red currant jelly, red wine jelly, port wine jelly, white wine jelly, blackberry wine jelly and blueberry jam). So my total for the year is 8.5 dozen-which is about what I need for the holidays. This is all my "other" jam/jelly yield for the year.
Thanks again for posting your apple butter. It got me motivated to make some this year-and I haven't done apple butter in several years, so this should make some of my giftees very happy. :>