Making and Canning Apple Butter

Last night and part of today was devoted to making and canning some apple butter for Christmas gifts. I used the recipe for apple butter and technique for canning (that song is so cute) from Southern Plate. I made a batch of apple butter and canned it using this recipe and technique once before, and it's really very easy once you understand the process of canning. I'll admit that I was nervous running my slow cooker overnight, and I kept waking up and wanting to check on it, but I quickly realized that was silly. I had a much better night's sleep this time around. Here's how I did:


All the ingredients go into the crock pot and set to low.


Mix it all up and cook on low overnight. It's looking more like apple butter already!


The next morning, it still needs to cook a couple or so more hours to thicken. This looks just about ready to me. I learned that the reason apple butter gets to be such a dark, brownish-reddish color is that during the slow cooking the sugar actually caramelizes. Here's the Wikipedia article.


So I started boiling my jars using the technique described at Southern Plate. I only had five jars left, so that was how many I made.


Laying the lids so that they are ready for adding boiling water.


I got this butcher block cart thing from Ikea. It's really handy because I can just move it close to the crock pot when I fill my jars, and then put it back where it belongs when I'm done. It's mobile counter space!


After the jars were filled and the lids screwed on, I boiled them again for a good five minutes.


The cart is back in its home and waiting for the finished product.


My very own canned apple butter! The rest of this batch was left to cool and put in a couple of plastic containers for my hubby and I to use. He's already requested pancakes tomorrow for breakfast, lol.

This batch was decidedly different than the last one, I believe it was due to the type of allspice I used.



In the last batch, I used the Jamaican allspice, and in this one I used the regular. I inspected them, and I did notice that they are different in color, texture, and smell. It kinda picks up in the photo, but there is more distinction in texture and color than what the photo shows. The Jamaican one is darker and coarser. The packaging of the Jamaican one notes uses for rubs and jerk, and the other notes uses for pies and such, more what I would expect from allspice.

The Jamaican allspice batch yielded a stronger flavor and almost had like a kind of bite or something in it. Eric liked that batch better. I liked this batch better, which was the regular allspice. It had a milder, sweeter flavor. I did some reading on the Internet (here's one article), and it looks like the difference is regional in that Jamaican allspice is considered superior, while the other allspice I bought might have come from an alternative source, which might include Guatemala, Honduras, or Mexico.

Anyone else know anything about this?