Applepalooza

Apples, apples everywhere! Lately my family has been canning a myriad of apple products and it has finally come to a close, so now I can share the fruits of our labor with you.

We went to a couple local apple orchards as well as to the supermarket and acquired a large amount of apples in a variety of varieties. Of course at the orchards we also had to sample some freshly made apple cider doughnuts!

We made apple butter, apple sauce, and apple pie in a jar (apple pie filling). We made a lot of apple butter because not only to my husband and I love it, we thought it would be great for Christmas presents. There are many reasons that Fall is my favorite season, and food made with fresh local apples is one of them! For canning new comers, some canning basics can be found here.

 

The apple sauce and apple butter are my own concoctions, we did some experimenting to see what we liked best. The apple pie in a jar comes from my aunt in the trusty family cookbook. We used a 6 quart slow cooker to make both the apple butter and the apple sauce. To make all the peeling and coring for the butter and sauce easier we used an apple peeling machine which looks something like this:

Apple Sauce

Apples - We used a variety called 20 oz. The guy at the orchard said the best apple sauce he ever had was made from these, so we thought we'd give it a try!

Water

Lemon Juice

1. Peel, core, and cut up enough apples to fill a 6 qt. slow cooker. (with the apple peeling machine you can just break them up with your hands.) To keep the apples from browning, every so often toss the cut up apples with some lemon juice.

2. Put the apples in the slow cooker along with 2 cups of water. Turn the slow cooker on low and leave for 10 -12 hours, or overnight.

3. Take half the apples and puree until smooth in a blender. Mash the other half with a potato masher. Mix the two halves back together.

4. Ladle into hot, sterilized canning jars, put on the lid and secure with a ring, and process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. When the lid pops you know your jar is sealed. Store in the pantry until ready to eat!

This recipe gave us about 2 quarts plus 1 pint of applesauce

Apple Butter

Apples - Our first batch used McIntosh, or final batch used a combination of Wolf's Bane and Wagners.

Apple cider

Brown sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg 

cloves

1. Peel, core and cut up enough apples to fill a 6 qt. slow cooker. It doesn't matter if the apples brown because you will add brown sugar and spices.

2. Put the apples in the slow cooker and add 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup of apple cider, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon of cloves.

3. Turn the slow cooker on low and let cook for 10-12 hours or over night.

4. Blend the apple butter until smooth

5. Ladle the apple butter into hot sterilized canning jars, put on the lids and secure with rings, and process for 15 - 20 minutes. When the lid pops the jar is sealed. Store in the pantry until you're ready to eat!

This recipe gave us about ten 8 oz. jars.

Apple Pie in a Jar

*Apples (tart, crisp apples work best for pie. The recipe suggests Spys or Jonathans, we used Granny Smiths, my husbands favorite.)

-Peel and slice enough apples to fill seven quart jars. We did not use the apple peeling machine for this, we wanted the slices to be more hearty.

*Syrup

5 cups sugar

1 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

10 cups water

- cook until think and bubbly, clear. Add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (we ran out of lemon juice so I skipped this part, it turned out fine.) 

-Pour the hot syrup over the apples in the jars. Put on the lids and secure with rings. Process 20 minutes in a water bath. Listen for lid pops. Store jars in the pantry until ready to eat. 

- When you are ready to eat  pour the apple pie filling into a crust, top with another crust and then follow the pie baking instructions. You could also pour it into a baking dish and top with crisp or cobbler topping!