Several weeks ago, Rod came home carrying a 35 pound box of Gala apples that he had bought from a co-worker. What do you do with 35 pounds of apples? I prepared some for pie and froze them. I dehydrated some for future use. We ate a few. And with some, I made a very simple apple butter.
Apple Butter
Usually, I cook my apples in the crockpot. This time, I cooked them in the solar oven. I prepared two pans of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. I added a tablespoon of concentrated apple juice to each pan for moisture to help the apples begin cooking. At this point, I didn’t add anything to the apples. I just let them solar cook for about 5 hours, until they were really soft. Then I took a potato masher and mashed up the very soft apples into small soft chunks (like thick chunky applesauce), and added about 1 cup sugar and some cinnamon. Then I brought the apple mixture to a boil on the stove and let it thicken just a bit. Then I quickly ladled the apples into my hot canning jars ( heat jars in the oven at 275degrees for about 20 minutes) and added the lids. When the jars cool, the lid seals. Wonderful, delicious apple butter! We eat it on toast, biscuits, waffles, and pancakes.
Pans of peeled, cored, sliced apples ready for the solar cooker
Cooked apples
3 1/2 pints of Apple butter
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Thank you! I will try this.
Hi Nancy, I love apple butter and this is the easiest way to make it. Enjoy. Thanks for stopping by. Merry