Apple Butter Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure policy.
My super easy Apple Butter recipe is perfectly spiced with rich fall flavors. It takes just 10 minutes to prep with NO peeling required! Recipe includes a how-to video.
All the Best Flavors of Fall in a Jar
Apple butter is the richer, prettier, and perhaps more sophisticated sister to plain-Jane applesauce. It’s truly the embodiment of fall, with colorful crisp apples cooked down and caramelized in spices, brown sugar and vanilla. It tastes great on just about anything, but we love it spread over an English muffin or warm scone (heavenly!).
My favorite thing about this apple butter recipe is that there is NO peeling required! I’ve tested this recipe with peeled and unpeeled apples, and I didn’t notice a difference between the two. When cooked for as long as my recipe calls for, the peels break down completely and are not perceptible in the finished product. Save yourself the time and skip the peeling!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Easy: only 10 minutes of prep before the slow cooker takes over.
- Perfectly flavored: the apples are the true star, with just enough sugar and spices added to accent them and make a warm, cozy fall flavor.
- Plentiful: this recipe makes a lot (3 pints!), so you’ll have some to share or gift (if you’re the generous type).
- No peeling: saves you SO much time and effort.
What You Need
To achieve a silky smooth and flavorful spread, you’ll need to slow cook just a few simple ingredients:
- Apples. What I love about my apple butter recipe is that there is no peeling needed! Just core and dice your apples into small, even pieces. Do not use a firm, tart apple like Granny Smith; stick with softer, sweeter apples like Golden Delicious (my favorite all-around apple for most recipes, like my apple turnovers!), Fuji, Gala, or McIntosh. A combination of apples works too!
- Sugar. A combination of brown and white sugar provides depth of flavor and helps the apples to break down and caramelize, giving the final product a fantastically rich fall flavor. Don’t forget, if you don’t have any on hand just follow my tutorial on how to make brown sugar!
- Spices. Lots of ground cinnamon and a pinch of cloves elevate the flavor of the apples by providing warmth and richness.
- Vanilla. A subtle hint of vanilla rounds out all of warm flavors. I recommend using a vanilla bean if you have one, but otherwise regular vanilla extract will work.
SAM’S TIP: The hardest thing about this recipe is waiting for it to be done. To mitigate this, I often like to prep everything before going to bed and let it cook while I sleep, but please always check your own slow cooker’s safety guide before leaving it unattended.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Apple Butter
- Core and chop (don’t peel!) your apples and place them in the basin of a slow cooker.
- Mix together spices and sugars. Sprinkle these over the apples and toss to combine.
- Cook apple mixture on low heat for 10 hours.
- Puree apples. I like to use an immersion blender (I linked to the one I use, affiliate), but you can use a regular one instead.
- Remove the lid and cook for another 2 hours or until the consistency has thickened to your liking.
SAM’S TIP: The additional two hours of cooking might seem like a pain, but it’s important and worth it to get the proper consistency. If you want an even thicker butter, you can continue to cook yours even longer; but I’ve found the two hours to be plenty (and keep in mind it will continue to thicken as it cools!).
Frequently Asked Questions
Typically it is used as a topping for biscuits or bread, but it’s also delicious on oatmeal, pancakes, my favorite waffle recipe, crepes, etc. Some people even serve it with scrapple, or you can take my dad’s approach and enjoy it by the spoonful!
Apple butter is typically sweeter, richer, and thicker (more of a buttery/spreadable consistency). It’s often much darker in color than applesauce, largely because of the added ingredients (in this instance, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, etc) and the caramelization that occurs from the longer cook time.
Yes it does. If you’d like to try canning yours, that’s a great option for extending its shelf life outside of the fridge (I don’t have experience canning, so I can’t offer any advice there, but here is a guide on canning I found that should be helpful.).
Apple butter gets its name from its butter-like consistency, there’s no actual butter in it. If you’re looking for a flavored butter, try my honey butter instead
Looking for more? Here are some of my favorite fall recipes.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
The Best Apple Butter Recipe (No Peeling!)
Ingredients
- 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg) soft, sweet apples (see note 1), Cored and chopped into small pieces, about ¼"
- 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 vanilla bean, (may substitute 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract)
Instructions
- Slice apples into small pieces (about ¼") and dispose of cores (you do not need to peel the apples).5.5 lbs (2.5 kg) soft, sweet apples (see note 1)
- 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.1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- Pour sugar mixture over apple pieces and stir until well combined.
- Place lid on crockpot and cook on low heat for 10 hours.
- Once 10 hours has elapsed, use an immersion blender to puree apples until smooth and no chunks remain (see note 2 if you do not have an immersion blender).
- Scrape the inside of the vanilla bean into your apple puree (or add vanilla extract).1 vanilla bean
- Turn crockpot on to low heat and cook another 2 hours uncovered, stirring occasionally.
- Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, where it will keep about 2 weeks.
Notes
1. Apples
I recommend using Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Fuji, or Gala. Don’t use Granny Smith; they are too tart and firm for this recipe. Weigh your apples before coring and chopping. Do not peel them! For me this was about 13 apples but this could vary wildly depending on the size of your apples.2. Pureeing
If you do not have an immersion blender, pour the apples into a blender and puree until smooth, then return to crockpot. You may need to work in batches, depending on the size of your blender.Storing
Store apple butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several weeks or freeze for up to several months.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Related Recipes
This recipe was originally published in October of 2017, photos and recipe remain the same but text has been updated to be more helpful and I’ve added a how-to video!
Huge hit in with my family and friends. I used monks fruit and stevia brown sugars. Perfect! Trying canning this batch for the first time today! Perfectly matched to homemade sourdough bread or…..my the spoonful.
Perfect flavor and thickness, and love how easy this is! I’ve canned this recipe for a couple of years now and it’s perfect each time. When people ask what to do with extra apples, I always share this link. Thanks for a great recipe!
Never making apple butter again. Started it at 7:45am. After 12 hours it was still soup. 16 hours in and I’m still up waiting for it to thicken. I cranked it up tonight after 12 hours. Guess I’m not sleeping tonight. 🙁
Even if I stopped now I’d still be up waiting for it to cool before putting it in the fridge. Was going to give some away but after all this…I don’t think so. Too much effort for the reward.
Hi Stephanie! It probably was fine at 12 hours, it’s unlikely it would take longer than that, unless there’s an issue with the slow cooker (did you use a smaller one than indicated?). Apple butter is thinner when warm, did you compare the consistency to that in the video? If it did just genuinely need more time, I would’ve just finished it the next day. Hope you still enjoy the apple butter!
Adding fruit pectin will help thicken it up
Has anyone tried making this with a sugar replacement like Swerve?
Hi April! I haven’t personally tried it, but others have reported sugar substitutes have worked.
I used Monk’s fruit sugar and stevia brown sugar—-AMAZING!
COMPLETELY AMAZED AT HOW EASY THIS WAS TO MAKE!!! Saving me time & nutrition by leaving on the skin! GENIUS! Will make again & again & again…. 😘
Just be sure to start with well cleaned organic apples if you are leaving the skin on. I skipped the added sugar due to dietary needs, and the finished product, after slow cooking a larger quantity for 24 hours, was still delicious.
This sounds lovely, but I do not have crock pot or slow cooker. Cooking on a electric stove for 12 + 2 hours seems wasteful…. An tips how to speed up cooking?
Hi Maya! Unfortunately I don’t have good advice for how to do this on a stove top. 🙁
This recipe sounds fantastic. Has anyone used johnagold, I believe they are a hybrid mix of Johnathan and golden delicious.
This is year 3 for this recipe for me! Excellent and easy recipe. I use a mix of Macintosh, Jonathon or Ida Red. This year will be Harel Red. I also use pure vanilla extract.
I actually can mine after cooked and they store well. Also make excellent gifts!
Do you can it in the boiling hot water.. or is the heat after cooking it enough to jar and tighten lid? not too familiar with canning already cooked foods.
I place the sealed jars in a boiling water bath—make sure tops are immersed and boil for 20 min.
Make sure tops put jars with hot liquid into boiling water and not cooled jars or the jar will crack.
Simple, lower sugar than most the recipes I read, and the flavor is excellent!
This is the best apple butter recipe I have made! Delicious. I let it cook overnight, pureed it with my hand held emulsifier while having my morning coffee, then let the amazing aroma fill my home until it was thick & apple buttery. I loved leaving the peels on, since apples come with them & we eat them fresh, why cut them off? I think they provide pectin to the apple butter which thickens it quicker.
So incredibly easy and turned out PERFECT! I’ll never use another recipe. I definitely think the pectin in the peels helps thicken this apple butter to perfection!
This recipe is easy and tastes fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing!
WOW. I used this recipe to make apple butter for the first time. I did it in the crockpot and used three different kinds of apples: Jonathan, Fuji, and Evercrisp. I used cane sugar instead of granulated and used vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean. I do not have an immersion blender so had to scoop into a standard blender to get the right consistency. It was worth the work. I shared with a few friends and took some to work for a pitch-in along with corn muffins and everyone loved it! I also used this recipe to can for the first time using a hot water bath. I will definitely be making another batch to give out as Christmas gifts.
I want to can some. Would you mind sharing how you did that?
I used Monk’s fruit sugar and stevia brown sugar—-AMAZING!
can you use red delicious apples?
L
We haven’t tried it, but it could work 🙂
Yes you can use red delicious apples. I’m on my 2nd batch right now, using all red delicious, and didn’t peel. 🙂
OhMyGoodness!!!!! Just want to eat it by the very large spoonful! Picked more apples than I could eat on a trip to New York State. Decided to make apple butter. This recipe is absolute heaven. Thank you for a perfect recipe.
Thanks for trying our recipe, Denny! We are so happy it was such a hit for you 🙂
Can you use a instant pot instead of a crock pot?
Hi Philip! If your instant pot has the slow cooker setting on it, it could work. If it doesn’t have that setting, we’re not sure how it would work 🙁
I actually used an instant pot for this recipe. I did 14 minutes manual high pressure, 10 minute natural release, then immersion blend. Then i cooked it on saute low in the instant pot, stirring constantly for 15 minutes until it reached the right thickness and color. I’d probably just heat over a stove pot instead of the saute mode next time for finer grained heat control because it would get too hot in the instant pot