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
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.
Video
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
Tim says
This stuff is so easy and soooooooo good you could put it on the soles of your shoes lick it off and it would still be heavenly!!! This is the second crockpot recipe I’ve tried and this is the best by miles. I would like to tell you all the good things about it but I don’t have the space or time now. I do have a question though, can it be frozen? Thanks so very much for sharing it. Tim and Karen.
Sam says
I think it will be ok in the freezer. Just make sure you leave a little bit of room in whatever container you put it in for it to expand a little bit.
Tina Kilgore says
Can it be canned?
Sam says
Hi Tina, I don’t see why not. I haven’t canned it myself but it should be fine 🙂
Donald Edwards says
My mother made apple butter when I was growing up. After making it she would put it in canning jars, pour melted parafin wax on top of the apple butter and put the lids on tight. During the winter we could go get a jar off the shelf and bring up to the kitchen. I don’t remember if she put them in the pressure caner or not.
Thank you. Donald
Lisa says
This was the BEST (even tho’ I forgot the vanilla)! I’m making another batch today, and will hot water bath this one. I appreciated the earlier responses to a question about canning this recipe. Soooo, good. I threw in a couple of Granny Smiths to add a little tartness.
Kathleen says
Hi Sam. I made your apple butter and it was yummy. It’s great on toasted English muffins or toast. Thanks for your great recipes. I love your site. The worst choc chip cookies are the best. Everybody wants the recipe wherever I take them. You make the best recipes. Thanks. Kathleen.
Sam says
Thank you so much, Kathleen. I am so glad everyone enjoys it. ☺️
And have never had a problem. Keep up the good work my friend says
I forgot to mention that I made your apple butter sugar free. And it turned out perfect. I always substitute sugar free for the sugar In all your recipes And have never had a problem. Keep up the good work my friend. Kathleen
Sam says
That’s awesome! I’m glad to hear it!
Denise Farmer says
what are you replacing the sugar with
Therese says
Hi Sam! Wondering if it’s possible to do this on high for 5 hours instead of low for 10 hours? Looks like a great recipe!
Sam says
I personally have only ever cooked it on low. For the best flavor I would recommend sticking with the low setting, but it should still turn out if you do it on high.
Rose Martell says
Can you use the oven method to sterilize the jars for this recipe instead of the boiling water bath?
Sam says
I’m sorry I am not very familiar with canning so I don’t know. 😔
Kendra says
Will it be okay if I keep cooking it or even put it on warm after I use the blender? I wasn’t thinking timeline when I started it so it technically won’t be done until 2am.
Sam says
I would probably place it on warm and leave the lid on otherwise it will get too thick
Kendra says
Thank you!!! My kids love this recipe! 😁
Sam says
You’re welcome! I am glad they enjoy it. ☺️
Ginny says
Just wanted to let you know wonderful our apple butter is made with your recipe. I did peel the apples and cooked on high for 5 hours. We peeled 43 golden delicious apples and got 24 half pints. Thanks Ginny
Sam says
Wow! That’s a lot of peeling! I am so glad you enjoyed it, Ginny. ☺️
Carrie Brett says
This was my first time making apple butter and it turned out great! I especially loved not peeling all those apples. My crockpot is one of the older smaller ones so I halved the recipe and it still made plenty. Tastes amazing stirred into cottage cheese.
Sam says
The best part of the recipe is not peeling the apples. My husband would have a lot of work on his hands peeling my apples for me. 😂 I am so glad you enjoyed it.
Beth L Bilous says
Could i possibly use Honeycrisp apples for this recipe?
Sam says
I think they should work just fine. 🙂
Beth Bilous says
Have you ever tried processing your apple butter in a water bath to make it shelf stable? I have done it with Jelly. Its easy, just kind of pain. Thinking of doing it with this recipe so I can ship it. Your thoughts, please.
Sam says
Hi, Beth! I am not very familiar with the process, so I have not tried it. I couldn’t provide a recommendation on how it would work. I’m sorry.
Wilhelmina Roberson says
I was wondering if you tried the water bath and did it work???
C Sandoval says
This is going to be my first time attempting to make apple butter and I’ve decided to try this recipe. I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything, does this recipe really not use any type of liquid? Others I’ve read called for water or apple cider so I just wanted to double check.
Thanks!
Sam says
Nope, no liquid 🙂 The slow cooker does a great job of pulling and maintaining all that moisture from your apples. Enjoy!
Chuck says
Hello, this recipe is amazing. But I was wondering have you tried to cook this on the stove? Just curious as my crock pot only holds 6 pounds of Apple’s but the recipe only yields about 6 8oz jars. I was wanting to use my stock pot to make more then that quantity. Thank you.
Sam says
I have not, I’m sorry!
Mirella says
Hi from UK, I had no idea what apple butter was until a visit to US last year. At Christmas I had some apples and pears leftover that were not going to get eaten so I thought I’d give this a try. Really easy and tastes so good, we like it with cheese, maybe that’s a British thing! I love that you don’t need to peel the fruit. I put lots more spice in mine and would probably reduce the sugar next time but what a great way to easily preserve fruit instead of throwing away. Thank you
Sam says
I never tried apple butter until recently either and I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on for so long! I am so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂