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Sharing my favorite homemade slow cooker maple apple butter recipe today, since you guys have been asking for it all month long.
As a lot of you have noticed, I’ve been using a ton of apple butter this September, see this honey, apple, cheddar, and bacon panini, this brussels sprout mushroom pizza, this honeycrisp apple old fashioned, and this pastry wrapped baked brie with maple roasted apples. To my surprise, many of you are actually unfamiliar with apple butter. If that happens to be you, apple butter is basically just apple sauce, but thicker and spiced with warm autumn spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It’s sweet, smooth, and possibly one of the most delicious spreads to put on toast throughout the fall season.
I’ll usually buy apple butter from the store, but on my fall bucket list this year I had written down “make homemade apple butter”. I was so excited that I actually checked the item off my list within the second week of September! I mean, this is amazing because my fall bucket list is huge, and I’ll often make a bucket list and never check anything off!
Anyway, I guess my point is that I was very excited to finally make some homemade apple butter. I’m also extremely excited, not only in how delicious it turned out, but how easy was to make!
If you have been following along on the blog for a year or more, than you know, come fall, I love to break out my slow cooker. Something about slow cooking a recipe all day long, just screams out to me during the fall months.
This apple butter is the perfect recipe to make on a crisp Sunday morning. Then maybe go out for a mid-day hike or bike ride and when you come back in the house will smell all cozy and delicious. then just spend an hour or two curled up on the couch and taking in the smell of apples cooking with cider, maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg…nothing short of amazing. Honestly, I would make this apple butter recipe simply for the smell it gives off. It’s like your favorite fall candles, but so much better.
Of course, unlike a candle, you get to eat this at the end of cooking, which is obviously much more ideal than just blowing something out, you know?
OKAY, so here’s how this recipe works. Chop up your apples (I love using Honeycrisp) and add them to your slow cooker along with, apple cider, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover and cook on low and slow all day long (or at least that’s how I prefer to do it). Then remove the sauce, puree in a blender and place back in the slow cooker for another hour or so. This will help thicken the sauce into more of a “butter”.
There’s almost zero work involved in the recipe and the end result is just so delicious. So far, I’ve used this apple butter in four recipes and it has taken them from good to incredible. AND I love that the only added sugar I used in the recipe is maple syrup. Meaning, this totally is totally acceptable to call healthy. Cool. Cool.
I have truly been using this apple butter almost daily. It is delicious in so many recipes (try it with pork chops!) or just spread it over a piece of toasted bread.
Plus, it’s the perfect way to use up all the fall apples you went and picked over the weekend…or that I hope you picked!
And you guys! Speaking of the weekend! I have so many fun details to share about the Half Baked Harvest Cookbook retreat. Would you like a full post on the retreat? I don’t have too many photos, but I have so much to say! Maybe I will share the details in my favorite’s post this Sunday!
Just to quickly recap though, the retreat went so amazingly well and was so much fun! Fortunately, the dinner on Saturday night went great. I worked with Crate and Barrel on the tables, and Kroger on the dinner. The tables turned out so cute that I might just need to recreate them and snap some better photos. I always LOVE the tablescapes I’m able to create with Crate and Barrel product. The actual meal thankfully turned out great. Thank you to Kroger for all my delicious produce…oh, and the ice cream social we did together was so delish.
Sunday morning was brunch with my friends at Land O’Lakes. It could not have been more delicious. All of their special butters take recipes to another level…their pumpkin spice butter is just too good.
I will go into more detail on Sunday, so stay tuned for that!
In the meantime, how about we all make some apple butter and then this apple cheddar Panini and this cocktail?!
Homemade Slow Cooker Maple Apple Butter
Servings: 6 cups
Calories Per Serving: 232 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Honeycrisp apples, cored and diced
- 1 1/4 cups apple cider
- 1/2 cup real maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon or 1-2 cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 pinch ground cloves (about 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1 pinch sea salt or kosher salt
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- 1. In the bowl of your slow cooker, combine the apples, apple cider, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours, stirring halfway through cooking.2. Remove the cinnamon stick and then transfer the apples to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the crockpot and cook, uncovered on high for 1-2 hours or until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust sweetness level to your liking by adding more maple. Cool and store in glass jars in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Instant Pot
- 1. In the bowl of your instant pot, combine the apples, apple cider, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Cover and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Release the steam.2. Remove the cinnamon stick and then transfer the apples to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the instant pot and cook, uncovered on sauté for 15-20 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust sweetness level to your liking by adding more maple. Cool and store in glass jars in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Stove-Top
- 1. Combine the apples, apple cider, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and 1 cup water in a large, heavy bottomed pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are completely softened and the liquid has reduced by half, 30 to 40 minutes, adding water if needed to keep the apples in liquid. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.2. Remove the cinnamon stick and then transfer the apples to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the pot and cook, uncovered over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust sweetness level to your liking by adding more maple. Cool and store in glass jars in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Notes
Nutritional values are based on one cup
Yes, lets! No boring Tuesdays around here!
Lastly, if you make this Homemade Slow Cooker Maple Apple Butter, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Hi! I’ve made this before and it was great.. but can you sub apple juice instead of cider?
Hey Jackie,
Yes, that would be okay for you to do! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
I had really high hopes for this recipe considering that the ratings were so high, but i honestly didn’t like it at all and neither did anyone in our household.. tasted nothing like apple butter, to me this tasted like bad apple compote. We couldn’t even taste the mapple no matter how much i added. Nobody at home enjoyed it so i guess ill have to find a recipe to use it considering the insane quantity that recipe produces..
Hi Maude,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, so sorry to hear it was not enjoyed! x
This is delicious! Thank you for a great recipe. Can’t wait to make your cinnamon sugar swirl apple butter bread.
Hey Lisa,
Thank you so much! I am so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe and appreciate you giving it a try! Xx
This tastes almost exactly like my family made it with less sugar. Great recipe.
I think the only change I would make to it is that if you don’t peel the apples, strain the apple butter through a sieve to get rid of any extra skin before adding back to crockpot to thicken. This would create a more smooth “butter”.
Hey Jenna,
Happy Sunday! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it and your comment! xT
Do you think you could freeze small jars of this?
Hi Mary,
Sure, I don’t see why not! Please let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
I made this in the instant pot last night so I could make the Apple Cider Doughnut Cookies and . . . nom. It smelled so amazing! However, I did do a few things differently:
Instead of maple syrup, I used dark brown sugar.
Instead of Honeycrisp apples, I used MacIntosh.
I used an immersion blender to blend instead of a food processor.
Since it wasn’t thickening, I added a little bit of cornstarch.
Overall, it was such a delicious recipe. It was also so easy — It was actually my first time using an Instant Pot but it worked out so well! Thanks so much!
Thank you for giving this recipe a try! Hope you have a great rest of your week! 🙂 xT
I made this for the apple butter cinnamon crunch bread and oh wow. The house smelled sooo good and tasted even better if possible. I did 20 min in the instant pot. I’ll be making this a lot!
Thank you! Love to hear that you enjoyed this apple butter! 🙂 xT
Do you can this apple butter, if yes what do you do to preserve it through canning?
Hi Cat,
So sorry, I have never canned this recipe, so I don’t know what the steps would be for that! Please let me know if you give the recipe a try! xx
I just canned this recipe tonight (all I did was google how to can apple butter). I’ve actually never canned before so it was an adventure (super easy one!), and they seem to be sealing properly so I think it was a success. I used half pint jars, filled them properly with the apple butter, boiled them for 15 min and all was Gucci!
Hi there! Can this be frozen? Thanks!
Hi Jasmine! Yes, you can freeze this! xT
Sounds amazing. Are the apples peeled?
You can peel your apples if you’d like, but I don’t usually! xT
I made this today! I wasn’t really a huge apple fan but this converted me. It’s sooo good!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe Jade! xT
This sounds delicious – do you blend with or without the remaining liquid please? (I’m doing stove top method). Thank you ☺️
I Blend with the liquid but try and reduce it as much as possible first, then reduced more if needed and adjust any flavors after blended and reduced.
This recipe absolutely SLAPS (it really good), tastes like Christmas! Love that there’s not a bunch of added sugar, really lets the apples shine through. It’s really the perfect AB recipe. 10/10!!!
Lol thanks so much, Stephanie!! So glad you enjoy this recipe as much as I do:) xT