Easy homemade Apple Butter! This simple recipe is made in a slow cooker and requires only minutes of prep time. Thanks to the slow cooker, you can set yours up before you go to bed, let it cook overnight, and enjoy fresh apple butter in the morning.
Recipe includes a brief how-to video at the bottom of the post!
We went apple picking last weekend and I have so many apple recipes coming up for you, but I’m especially excited to share today’s apple butter recipe.
Have you ever had apple butter before? It’s very similar to applesauce — in fact it essentially is applesauce, only cooked longer. It has a rich golden brown color that comes from the caramelization of the sugars in the apples during the extended cooking time. There’s no actual butter in apple butter, it’s just a nice smooth spread that tastes just as good on toast, muffins, or pancakes as butter does.
We like eating ours on English muffins and scones, and some of my family members even just like dipping apple slices directly into apple butter and enjoying it that way!
Apple butter is really truly easy to make, but it takes a long time to cook… 12 hours total, in fact.
Thanks to the slow cooker, you can set everything up before you go to sleep and allow it to cook overnight, which is what I like to do. I put mine in the crockpot before I went to bed and in the morning not only did my house smell amazing, but I had fresh apple butter for my breakfast.
The first time I made this recipe I peeled all of the skins off my apples. However, traditional apple butter is made with the skins and cores intact. I couldn’t leave the cores in for this slow cooker version, but I tried making this both with and without the skin and found that it didn’t make a difference at all. Save yourself a lot of effort and leave the peels — after 12 hours in the crockpot and a bout with the blender, you won’t be able to even tell.
What are the Best Apples for Apple Butter?
While Granny Smith apples are a standard baking apple (and I love using them in Apple Crisp), I don’t recommend using them for making apple butter as they are too firm and too tart.
Instead, choose a softer and less tart apple. Here are a few popular choices, and you can even mix several varieties of apples if you’d like.
- Golden Delicious (these are my favorite to use and are pictured here!)
- Fuji
- Gala
- McIntosh
How Do You Make Homemade Apple Butter?
- Core and chop (don’t peel!) your apples and place them in the basin of a slow cooker.
- Toss with sugar and spices
- Cook 10 hours on low heat
- Puree (I like to use an immersion blender (this is mine, affiliate) but you can use a regular blender instead if you don’t have the immersion type.
- Cook the apple butter another 2 hours without the lid on your slow cooker.
These last two hours are important. You’ll add your vanilla at the end here and cook until it reaches the appropriate thickness.
If the apple butter is still too thin for your liking you can cook it longer to thicken it. I’ve never needed to cook mine longer than the additional 2 hours, and keep in mind that apple butter will thicken as it cools.
Enjoy!
Scroll to the bottom of the recipe to see my video, complete with lots of tips! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel and be the first to see all of my cooking videos!
Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 5.5 lbs Golden Delicious Apples* Cored and chopped into small pieces, about 1/4"* (2.5kg)
- 1 cup brown sugar tightly packed (200g)
- 3/4 cup sugar (150g)
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Slice apples into small pieces (about 1/4") and dispose of cores.
- Place apples in the basin of large slow cooker
- In a medium-sized bowl stir together sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cloves until well-combined.
- Pour sugar mixture over apple pieces and stir until well combined.
- Cook covered in crockpot over low heat for 10 hours.
- Once 10 hours has elapsed, either use an immersion blender** to puree apples until smooth and no chunks remain.
- Scrape the inside of the vanilla bean into your apple puree (or add vanilla extract).
- Turn crockpot on to low heat and cook another 2 hours uncovered, stirring occasionally.
- Store apple butter in the refrigerator in an airtight container, will keep about 2 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published 10/02/2017, photos and recipe remain the same but text has been updated to be more helpful and include more tips on 10/12/2018
Brent says
Can you seal the lids and it keep, or do you need to freeze it? I would like to have it for later use instead of the 2 weeks.
Sam says
Hi Brent! If you go through the process of canning the apple butter you can keep it for quite a while. If you search through the comments I believe some others have told me how they do it. 🙂
Lisa Hampton says
Hi Sam. I’ve made this recipe before and it turned out excellent. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. Getting ready to make more tonight for Christmas gifts. Have a merry Christmas and Happy New Year too!!!!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Lisa! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! 🙂
Lisa says
Hi again Sam. I did make another batch last night and it turned out the greatest. A little tip to make it even easier is I did not cut the apples up into small pieces, just used my apple corer. And they were huge apples!!!! There was no difference when I pureed them with my immersion blender. And btw, I never even heard of that type of blender untill I read your recipe!! Then I immediately ordered one. I love it, so win win for me and Thank You so much!!!!!
Sam says
That is awesome! Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed it so much. 🙂
Tina says
Amazing and sooooo easy. Cannot wait to share at Christmas.
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Tina!! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out for you, I appreciate it! ☺️
Merry Christmas!
Debra says
What do I do with the peels?
Sam says
Hi Debra! You can just leave them on the apples. They will dissolve when cooking. 🙂
Darlene Oberman says
We’ve made Apple Butter for years, but always on the stovetop, not in the crock pot. I’m anxious to try the crock pot method, cause it would be real easy to just “prep, set and forget”, and come back to finish up, and eat it. The slight difference with doing it on the stove is, you add some water as if cooking for Apple Sauce, cook and stir occasionally, then when apples are cooked down to “soft and mushy”, you add the spices, sugar, vanilla, etc. and continue cooking til it’s “done”, which is dark, thick, and a “spreadable” consistancy, which I’m sure is how the crock pot version cooks up also. But, now that I know it can be done in a little easier way, I’m going to give it a try. I’m all for anything “easier”. I’m new to this, but I like your other recipes also, I’ll be trying some. Thank you, Sam. Happy Holidays!!
Sam says
I hope you love this method! It’s super easy! Happy Holidays! 🙂
Darrell says
We use braeburn or Granny smith and have no issues with tartness. Passing it out for Christmas
Beth S says
I didn’t know what was in apple butter before I saw this recipe! 🙂 It’s so delightfully simple. I made it and we ate it every day for two weeks until we ran out. I just put a new batch in the slow cooker and I’m looking forward to that delicious smell greeting me in the morning. This apple butter pairs perfectly with your biscuit recipe. So so so yummy! I think I will make a third batch and give it to my neighbors for Christmas.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Beth! It definitely is great on the biscuits. I bet your neighbors would LOVE that as a gift. 🙂
melayja M Walton says
How long would thus last in the frezzer
Sam says
Hi Melayja! It should last at least several months once frozen. 🙂
Annabel says
Just made this and cannot wait to spread it on toast tomorrow, was actually really easy to make! Also happiest of the birthdays to Luke, cannot believe he is one! 🤍
Sam says
I hope you love every last drop of it! Luke says “thank you!” It’s crazy it’s already been a year!!! Time really does fly.