Hey guys! I hope you all had a great weekend and Happy Labor Day to those in the US of A. This weekend I’ve spent a lot of relaxing, taking long walks with Olive and cooking up some tasty eats.
One thing in particular, which I alluded to in my last post, was made with apples and made the house smell amazing. Some of you already guessed it, but for those of you still wondering, it was homemade apple butter!
Although I’m not one to spread regular butter on my toast, I tend to love anything with butter in name – apple, pumpkin, almond, sunflower seed, peanut… I don’t discriminate. Turns out that sugar is often added to all of these butters when commercially produced (check your labels)!
I’ve already made my own pumpkin butter before so I figured this year I would experiment with apple butter. Apples are surely sweet enough on their own so I decided to try my hand at a no sugar added apple butter and guess what? It turned out sweet!!
Lean on me.
Of course, I’ve already sampled the apple butter – several times actually, and it’s delicious, perfectly sweet, and naturally healthy. If you’re looking for a way to use up quite a few apples, a low sugar version of your favorite apple butter or a homemade gift idea, here’s your recipe. 
Healthy Homemade Apple Butter (no sugar added)
- 10 medium sized apples (choose a sweet variety like Red Delicious or Gala)
- 2 cups of unsweetened apple juice or approximately 5 apples juiced
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 T cinnamon
- 1/2 t pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 t ground cloves
- 1/4 t ground nutmeg
- pinch of sea salt
Prep:
1. Place cored and sliced apples (not peeled) into a large crock-pot / slow cooker.
2. Juice apples and pour juice on top of sliced apples. Add water, apple cider vinegar and spices. Stir all ingredients together, cover pot and let it cook for 15 hours on low.
3. The liquid will reduce and the apples will be very soft, darker in color, and smell lovely. Turn the crock pot off and let the apples cool down a bit (about 30 minutes), then transfer the mixture into a blender (or use a hand/stick blender) and blend until completely smooth.
4. Let the apple butter cool and then transfer into storage containers. It should store well in the fridge for about 3 weeks, however I filled 8, 1/2 pint freezer-safe canning jars, put the lid on, let them cool and then placed all the jars (besides one) into the freezer. Now I have one jar to eat and some homemade Christmas gifts!!
Nutrition Facts for 2 Tablespoons/1 ounce:
Enjoy the rest of your Monday and check back soon because I have another (super-smooth) recipe to share.
Brittany Mullins, HHC
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Ahhh I wish I had this for the quinoa parfait! It looks delicious and I love apple butter.
I’ve never thought to make homemade apple butter. It looks great- kind of like caramel!
Great recipe! I will have to try it with pears because they are falling off of our trees!
That is handy, I was talking today about other uses for apples. Nice to have something else in my repertoire other than apple crumble! What are the nutritional stats like? x
For 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) it has approx. 16 calories, 0 fat, 4 carbs, 4 sugar, 0 protein
I love apple butter so much, but never thought to make some myself. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks fantastic!!!!! I love Apple Butter, but homemade apple butter blows all of the store bought ones out of the water. I never think these things need added sugar. You are right, entirely sweet enough on their own.
Love the nutritional facts…where do you get them?
I put the recipe on http://www.livestrong.com‘s Daily Plate and it gives you the nutritional facts!
I am so excited! Apple butter was one of the spreads that I grew up with, and I’ve wanted to make my own variety at home. However, all the recipes I’ve seen are chock-full of added sugar, which seems so silly to my fruit-loving self! Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I can’t wait to give it a try!
oh yeah..i’m good. haha..sounds amazing! i’ve always wanted to try it…i think i’m going to make if for christmas gifts!!
Apple butter is amazing. And Im sure your house smells just as wonderful!
Brittany this looks fabulous! I love apple butter! It would taste so wonderful mixed into oatmeal
I never tried apple butter!
I think I’ll definitely make this, it looks great!
Just an awesome Apple Butter Recipe! yay.:) I agree, let the natural sweetness work its magic!
Yummm apple butter! There is a farmer’s market around me that makes no sugar added apple butter. I have really been enjoying it in my oatmeal but I bet making my own would be better. Can’t wait to try the recipe!
And bonus that I get to use the crock pot… I feel like I am never quite sure what to use that for…
Hey Brittany,
How do you juice the apples? Do you need special equipment?
Kristina
love it! I always want to use a fruit spread in my oats or on toast but they are loaded with sugar, I just bookmarked this post – thanks!
As soon as I come home with an abundance of apples, I am making this!
Oh damn! I had been doing well without a crockpot for awhile and now I am seeing that I need to go buy one this weekend along with a big bag of apples. This just sounds YUMMY!! I am thinking this, spread on one of my homemade sweet potato/cranberry/almond muffins would be HEAVENLY for breakfast (or dessert!)
Thanks so much for this recipe! I’ve been trying to find good apple recipes for all of the apples I plan on picking this fall! I will definitely be making this…a great excuse to whip out the ole crockpot!
Apple butter is so good! I love the fact that its super sweet and barely any calories! Its a great substitution for maple syrup or even butter!
I made this last night and it is amazing! I’m excited to use it with my oatmeal tomorrow! The lovely smell helped with the awful skunk smell that permeated our walls after our dog got sprayed…
I can’t believe how something this simple and amazing can avoid me for all these years. Imagine the possibilities of this apple butter, all the things you can put it on, in and with. Thank you for opening up the floodgates of creativity in my brain by introducing me to this. Great stuff! And perfect for the fall!
I’ve never had apple butter. I’m going to bookmark this and try it though – it looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Just wanted to let you know that I put up on my FB that I am making apple butter and I have had so many comments. Not to mention, a friend asked me to send her the recipe so I sent her the website link and I told another friend that when it was done (if I made it right lol) I will send her a jar and it made her whole day
So I think overall this recipe was a big hit and it isnt even finished yet lol
Without a doubt…I am making this tonight; O MY GOSH…amazing; love it, Britt…thanks for this fabulous recipe…I’m so cited to try it!
Have a great day.
xo
Aims
I made this over the weekend and it was great! Thanks!!!
So glad you liked it Heather!
I came upon your recipe while searching for a quick and easy recipe for apple butter. See, I try to plan my menus each week and one of the recipes I planned to use called for apple butter. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the extra to buy it last minute, but I did have all the right stuff to make it with (lucky for me). So Tuesday night I found your blog and this delicious recipe. A big plus is that my husband is diabetic so the “no sugar added” part is a big plus for us. I put everything in the crock pot Tuesday night then went to bed. Sadly, I woke up sick with a bad sore throat and cough so I didn’t get to make the other recipe…but it sure was nice waking up to the lovely smell of fresh apple butter cooking away! I forced myself to finish the apple butter and boy am I ever so grateful. It was delicious warm and even better when it cooled. I couldn’t eat anything else…. Thanks for a great recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the apple butter recipe!
so i have gushed about this apple butter in my overnight oats quite a bit on twitter. i would like to let you know of three people i gave jars to, all have completely finished theirs within a week! they all love it as well – just thought you should know! thanks for all your awesome recipes!
meg
Hi there!
I included your apple butter recipe on my blog, http://www.sourgrapeblog.com. Hope that’s alright!
Thanks so much for linking to this recipe Mila!
I made your apple butter recipe, it was PERFECT!
Thanks for making a healthy recipe, and it’s better then any apple butter i’ve ever tasted.
I’m so glad you liked the apple butter Rebekah!!
Hi! I just discovered your lovely blog and I truly enjoyed reading it this afternoon. This recipe reminds me of something a friend of mine did. But the apple butter she did was far too sweet for my taste. I might try my hand in this and see how it turns out.
Hi Aline, thank you for visiting! Let me know if you try the apple butter recipe.
are freezer safe ball jars DIFFERENT than regular ball jars? do i need to look specifically for ones that say “freezer safe”??
Yes mam. They will say freezer safe on the box. I got mine at Wal-Mart.
I discovered your blog recently and I love it! I tried this recipe and everyone keeps raving about it. Thank you for the great idea!
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe Amy.
Yum!
Apple butter sounds wonderful!
I am interested in making this yummy looking recipe! Can you tell me how many jars in makes?
I filled 8, 1/2 pint canning jars.
Could I use this recipe for canning? How long would I have to boil it for?
Hi Erika, I’m pretty sure you could use this recipe for canning but I’m not 100% sure how long you would need to boil it. A source I found online said 10 minutes.
i just got done canning my double batches- i always water bath my apples for 20 minutes to be on the safe side but i’ve seen recommendations anywhere between ten to twenty minutes!!
Ohhh … these butters look delish. You have inspired me to give them a try : )
Lexie | Lexie’s Kitchen
thank you soo much for this recipe- i made several batches and canned it for Christmas presents! this was perfect for my diabetic family members!! it smelled amazing and canned effortlessly! my only regret was not making it sooner!!! thanks so much
Thank you for the recipe. I just have one question. Most recipes tell you to peel the apples, but yours does not. Can you feel the texture of the peeling once you blend the apples? Or it it completely smooth?
I couldn’t feel the texture of the peeling once the apples were blended.
Hi! I wanted to tell you that I made your apple butter and it was so easy — and tasty! Loved not peeling the apples, it was sugar-free and just went into the slow cooker. What a win-win-win. I linked to your site (and this recipe) today from Foodlets. Hope you get a little traffic bump!
Best, Charity