Apple Butter in the Crock Pot
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Made with apple sauce, fresh apples, and apple juice, this apple butter in the crock pot recipe is bursting with apple flavor. Add in some delicious spices like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice and you have a treat that’s to die for when spread on a warm biscuit.
From time to time I run across a person who has never heard of apple butter. When I am finished gasping in horror at the wasted life they have led up until that point, I make it my first order of business to slather some on a biscuit and get it to their mouth as soon as possible.
Some people are intimidated by apple butter because they think it’s hard to make. But I’m here to tell you it’s surprisingly easy, especially when you make apple butter in the crock pot. Perhaps it’s the complex taste of the spices combined with how few people actually do make it anymore which causes it to be shied away from in our kitchens? There is no need though as this apple butter recipe is likely one of the easiest things that I’ve brought you so far!
All we need to do is add all of the ingredients to the crock pot and let it do its magical thing. The ingredients include apple sauce, Granny Smith apples, apple juice, granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Oh, the combination of all that apple flavor with the spices makes this apple butter SO tasty, y’all.
I like to put my apple butter on to cook in the slow cooker just before I go to bed and let it cook all night long. When I wake up in the morning, the house is filled with the most delicious and fragrant smell that I often reserve making it for a time when we have company! I wake up first thing, take the lid off, and give it a few fans just to make sure the house is thoroughly saturated with that sensational apple butter smell.
We eat a breakfast of buttermilk biscuits and fresh, hot apple butter while I let the rest continue to cook. This is about as close to heaven as you can possibly get while still drawing breath. I’ve convinced you now, right?
Recipe Ingredients
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Sugar
- Granny Smith apples
- Apple juice
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Allspice
How to Make Apple Butter in the Crock Pot
“Chip” your apples like we did in the apple pie. If you have not read the apple pie tutorial, you now have your first official homework assignment.
Do this by peeling the apples and cutting little chips of them off.
Place in a large crock pot along with both jars of apple sauce, sugar, spices, and a bit of apple juice.
The exact quantities are at the bottom of this post.
Stir well and cover with the lid. Cook on low overnight for 8 to 10 hours.
After cooking overnight or throughout the day, your apple butter will be dark brown and rich.
However, it will have a bit too much water in it. This is where you will taste it and see what you want to add. I am including the exact quantities I use at the bottom of this crock pot apple butter recipe.
Leave the lid off and continue cooking for a few hours until it cooks down a little bit. “Cooks down” is how old folks say “it’s too runny, you need some of that water gone!”.
After it cooks down a bit, fill up pint or quart jars and seal.
If you go through the process of canning this slow cooker apple butter, you can simply leave the jars on a shelf in your pantry. Otherwise, you would need to refrigerate them and use them within two to three weeks.
You can also place it in jars and freeze it to keep it longer without canning. For a complete tutorial that makes canning easy, please click here (yes, I said “EASY” because it is!).
Here’s some scrumptious apple butter on a spoon roll. I’ve included more serving suggestions below!
Storage
- Refrigerate the jars of apple butter and store them in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
- You can also freeze apple butter for up to 1 year. Thaw in the fridge before using.
- Alternatively, click on this canning tutorial to store them in the pantry for months.
Recipe Notes
- If you feel like it is too much sugar for you or too many cloves or allspice, just do a little less. The beauty of this recipe is that you cook it all night in the crock pot, then taste it in the morning and add what you prefer to make it to your taste. You can also use Stevia or Monk Fruit instead of sugar if you like. However, it will require much less as these sweeteners are a lot sweeter than sugar.
- For a different flavor, use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar.
- A jar of homemade apple butter is the perfect Thanksgiving hostess gift!
- You can easily substitute the cloves or allspice for ground nutmeg and/or ground ginger if that’s what you have on hand.
- Another way to add sweetness is to add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Stir this in when you taste it after it’s been slow cooking overnight.
- If you want smoother apple butter, you can blend it using an immersion blender until smooth, before storing. Use the immersion blender directly in the slow cooker or transfer the mixture to a standing blender and puree.
Recipe FAQs
How do you serve apple butter?
The options are basically endless when it comes to serving your crockpot apple butter, but here are some suggestions:
- Use apple butter instead of apple sauce the next time you serve pork chops.
- Serve it on a Southern biscuit, toast, scone, cornbread, pancakes, crepes, or waffles.
- Use it on your next charcuterie board, as it tastes delicious spread on a cracker with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese.
- Add a dollop to a serving of vanilla ice cream.
- Use as an oatmeal or yogurt topping for breakfast.
- Enjoy a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich for lunch!
Can you overcook apple butter in the crock pot?
No, you can’t overcook apple butter in the crock pot. The longer you leave it in there on low, the more intense the flavors will become.
What are the best apples to use in apple butter?
While I opt for Granny Smith apples because they’re a great baking apple, many apple varieties work. This includes Fuji, Golden Delicious, Gala, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, McIntosh, Braeburn, and Jonagold.
What is the difference between apple sauce and apple butter?
Apple butter is basically a more concentrated and thicker version of applesauce as it’s cooked for a longer period of time. But if you want to make apple sauce instead, check out my crockpot cinnamon apple sauce recipe.
You may also like these sensational spreads:
Peach Preserves That Will Knock Your Socks Off
How To Make Strawberry Jam (No Cooking, No Canning)
Peach Freezer Jam (No Canning Involved)
Ingredients
- 2-3 50-oz jars unsweetened apple sauce
- 3 lbs Granny Smith apples
- 4 cups sugar
- 1.5 cups apple juice
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp allspice
Instructions
- Peel and cut apples into small chips.3 lbs Granny Smith apples
- Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir.2-3 50-oz jars unsweetened apple sauce, 3 lbs Granny Smith apples, 4 cups sugar, 1.5 cups apple juice, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp allspice
- Cover and slow cook on low overnight (eight to ten hours). Then remove the cover, stir, and taste. Add more spices or sugar if desired.
- Continue cooking for a few more hours, uncovered, until some of the liquid has gone and the butter has cooked down a bit.
- Pour into jars and refrigerate (unless it is canned properly).
- Serve over hot biscuits, toast, scones, or just eat it out of the jar if no one is looking!
Nutrition
Hi Christy,
I’m a fan of your site and have made a bunch of your recipes. They are all fantastic! I’d like to the Apple Butter. Is there a reason you use Granny Smith apples or does it matter? My favorite apple is the Gala. I’m wondering if they would make a good apple butter or if you need the tartness of the Granny Smith? What do you think?
Thanks!
Karen
Christy, could you freeze this in plastic freezer containers ? My husband loves Apple butter. Maybe I should try this.
You sure could! No problem at all!
Gratefully,
Christy
My apple butter is now made and canned! Woohoo! It’s so good- Like I said above, I made sorta half a batch plus a bit. I added another half cup of sugar this morning, but I don’t think it needed it. We love sweet things though, so it’s no problem! My fiance doesn’t like applesauce (weirdo), but he likes the apple butter. I made biscuits to go with it. (I just heard a jar seal!) My apple butter ended up cooking for a solid 20 1/2 hours- 12 on low covered, 8 high and uncovered. We ended up with only 4 half pints, plus whatever we ate during the day! It’s so good…
I’m a little concerned about how my canning went. Can you reassure me that we aren’t going to die from food poisoning? Turns out my big pot isn’t that tall, so I had to lay the jars on their sides when sterilizing and processing. They were covered by an inch of water, but I think my dish towel had a little bit of laundry detergent left on it or something because there was a good amount of bubbles and water overflowing. Jars ended up only being covered by half an inch or so. I processed them for 13 minutes instead of 5 though… Do you think it will be okay? I’ll definitely get a bigger pot for next time!
If it were me, I’d feel completely confident in how that was canned, you done good!!!!
I’m so excited that you made it!!
Thanks for replying, Christy. Yay, we won’t die! 😀 I went and put them in the fridge last night, just in case, so if I did do a questionable job, at least the cold will stave off the baddies for a while. I doubt the apple butter will last more than a month or two anyway. I learned to can using the open kettle method when I lived with a family in Austria. We only canned things like jams and tomato juice. I even canned my own tomato juice open kettle style a few times before I knew that I was just asking for food poisoning. We survived just fine, so I think my most-likely-canned-okay apple butter will be okay. I found a great website that has dozens and dozens of canning recipes (I mean, there are like 30 jelly recipes alone), all with step by step instructions, so now I’m all excited to make my own jelly after I acquire a great big pot! I love the strawberry freezer jam that I made a month ago (thanks to your peach freezer jam tutorial), but would like some jelly too. Never going to buy jelly or jam again!
I just put all of my ingredients in the crock pot to make this! My crock pot is only 4 quarts so I had to kind of wing it. I ended up with a 3 pound jar of unsweetened applesauce, 2.25 pounds of apples (2 Fujis, 1 Red Delicious and 1 Gala), 3/4 cup apple cider, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and half a teaspoon each of cloves and allspice. I’m hoping that adding the apple cider wasn’t a mistake since I essentially am making half the recipe but with extra apples, which will be juicy. I guess we’ll find out! In any case, of course I had to taste everything once it was mixed up and it’s already incredibly tasty. Love the cinnamon, allspice and cloves together!
I’ll surely comment again once my apple butter is finished (and canned! It’ll be my first time!) later on 🙂 I’ve only ever had jarred apple butter from the grocery store so I know this is going to be good.
Saw this recipe and had to make it! It’s in the crockpot and 8 hours will never go by slower….can’t wait to try it!
Ok… I made a double recipe of this and gave it out to all my teacher co-workers for Christmas. If you do this, be prepared to be BOMBARDED with empty jars and demands for MORE.. NOW! lol
This stuff is the best of the best of home cooking… warm, cozy, delicious, and SUPER easy! I would even say that it is IMPOSSIBLE to screw up.
Thanks, Christy, for giving me just one more reason to release my stress in my kitchen.
I LOVE apple butter! I can NOT wait to try this! Apple butter has ALWAYS been a staple at our fish fry’s! We just throw some canned biscuits in the fryer after we have fried our fish and potatoes… NOTHING BETTER than apple butter on deep fried canned biscuits!
Oh MY!!!! Deep fried canned biscuits?!?!?!?!! Sounds like a little bit of heaven! lol Actually, Christy also has a recipe about making donuts from canned biscuits … pretty much the same thing, I suppose!