Creamy spicy apple butter on a super easy homemade bread – what can be better than that ?
It’s September, which means that fall is officially here. Boston is a lot crisper than a couple of weeks back. The temperature is around the upper 60s at night. I am wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts when we go to Toscanini (a local Ice-cream parlour). Fall means winter is coming soon, and days are going to be shorter. This reminds me that I need to get some studio lights this year. For a long time, I have been thinking about purchasing an LED light; I guess I need to buy that pretty soon.
Fall also means pumpkins, apples, Halloween, sweatpants, and light sweaters. Most years, we go to a local apple orchard and pick some apples, but this year is an exception. My husband is busy with my website migration and his project, while I am busy with my photography and cooking on the weekends. Did I tell you that we are migrating to Bluehost from GoDaddy?
I have been with Godaddy since 2012. First I had my portfolio dolphianandi.com; later I started storyofcooks with them. However, they are not able to handle my WordPress theme, images and traffic. After speaking with other food bloggers, we have decided to move to Bluehost. For now, we’ve purchased the shared plan, but we might soon move to a virtual private server. As I mentioned, Mr. Arnstein is busy doing that for me.
For a while, I have been eyeing up an apple butter recipe. When we went to Boston Public Market, we got a jar of unsweetened apple butter. I also found that food 52, Saveur are talking about apple butter on Facebook (if you’re a foodie, you should follow those pages). I wanted to make apple butter and I was eagerly waiting for September to come around.
Many of my Indian friends asked – what is apple butter? Is it the same as jelly or jam? It is nothing but a reduced fruit puree. Jam and jellies both have pectin in it – but fruit butter does not. It’s organic, safe, chemical and hassle-free. You simmer and slow-cook apple sauce for a long time with cider to a point where the sugar in the apple caramelizes and turns the apple butter into a deep brown spread. As sugar is concentrated, the shelf life of apple butter is much longer.
Benefits of fruit butter:
a. As it uses the skin, it’s highly nutritious.
b. It contains much less sugar than jam or jelly. You can also omit the sugar altogether if you want.
c. It does not have pectin.
d. You can add a choice of your own spices.
Downsides:
a. It takes longer to cook as it does not have pectin.
b. It doesn’t look as bright and shiny.
Apple butter is smooth buttery, and it won’t take much effort to spread it on a piece of bread. During breakfast, we have apple butter with bread, cream cheese, tea and fruits. At night, we savor that with cheese and nuts. No matter how busy my husband is, he will never forget to make an assorted platter of cheese, crackers, some apple butter and nuts.
So what are you waiting? If you have a bag of apples, start preparing your apple butter now! Ok, maybe when you have a bit more time.
Giveway:
As the festive season is just around the corner, we decided to share a camera backpack with all of our readers.However, this is only limited to US participants, so do not forget to participate in this giveaway. Here is the sneak peak of the backpack.
Note: I have used apples of mixed variety – gala, McIntosh and pinklady. You can choose any apples of your choice.
Recipe is adapted from Simply Recipes.
Recipe for Spicy Apple Butter
Instructions
1. Cut the apples into quarters. In a soup pot, add apples, water, and vinegar. Bring it to the boil. Cover the pot and reduce the temperature to medium-low. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the apples are very soft.
2. In a food processor, in batches, add softened apples with a ladle. Work it until the mixture is smooth. Take it aside in a big mixing bowl. In a soup pot, line a strainer. Pour the pureed applesauce over it and with a ladle strain the skins. It will be super smooth as shown in the picture above.
3. Add sugar, cinnamon, all-spice and nutmeg. With a ladle, stir to mix it well.
4. Now divide the smooth applesauce into two non-stick flat pans. The bigger the surface the better it will be. You can cook two ways. You can cook at medium-low heat, but you need to stir continuously. This process will be faster though. If you do not want to stand in front of the burner, you can reduce the temperature to the lowest setting and stir often. This process might take longer; in total it took me 3 hours.
5. Final Test: Meanwhile, chill a plate in the deep freezer. Add a spoon of apple butter to the plate and check that it’s not runny. When it’s no longer runny, the apple butter is ready.
6. Canning: There are two ways you can prepare the jars.
- You can boil the water to 180F. Add the jars and lids and keep in the water for 10 minutes. You might need to work in batches. Also, add the tongs to the hot water that you’ll be using to take the jar out.
- Preheat the oven to 200F. Add jars without lids and heat it for 10 minutes. But the lids have to be prepared with heated water like I mentioned above. With tongs take it aside.
- You can preserve apple butter refrigerated for 1 month. If you’re not planning to refrigerate it, seal it properly before saving.
Apple Butter sounds like a fantastic idea to use up all the apples. Like you mentioned earlier, I have also seen recipes of apple butter floating on the web for a while !!!
You should start preparing soon!
Apple butter looks yummm.. love the apple, spice and cheese combination.
Hey , we got LED lights some time back and found it very tough to control them . Congratulations on the migration . And hey that camera backpack looks awesome . I am raising my hands in greed .
Anindya, The led light I am looking for is a bit different.
Hi, It’s amazing
Thanks Ancol!