Make Honey Apple Butter With These Extra Apples
Perfect apples are falling into grocery stores without any sign of stopping, and will continue to do so for the next month or so. Make the most of this bounty by making one of the most concentrated iterations of the apple, Apple Butter with a Twist. It’s always been a fall favorite, dunkable, spreadable, velvety smooth, but we’ve enhanced it even further with a dash of honey, just in time to celebrate the sweet Rosh Hashanah New Year.
It’s silly that many apple butter recipes no longer include honey. Apples and honey are basically made for each other—apple blossom-loving bees already know this—and this recipe invites them both to live in harmony on your toast. Since this recipe is more like an upbeat applesauce that breaks down a bushel of apples into a relatively small amount of sauce, it’s the perfect recipe to lean on when you can’t handle all those round boys you picked last weekend. .
Aside from a plentiful supply of your favorite apples, all you need to make apple butter is sweetener and acid. If you don’t add some acid to cooked apples, they will become a bit cloudy in taste, like stale apple cider. It might be tempting, but the fermented notes of apple cider aren’t as pleasant in apple butter, and the acid retains the flavor after cooking. The sweetener balances out the sour taste, making for a great apple butter flavor even if your apples vary in their natural sweetness. You can flavor your oil however you like. Some recipes do rely on the cinnamon and spice component, others on vanilla. I wanted the honey flavor not to be too strong, so I only used a small amount of cinnamon to add some warmth.
To make this easy apple butter, start by peeling the apples, removing the core, and slicing into half-inch-thick slices. The shapes don’t matter as long as they’re close to the same size – you want them to cook at the same speed, but they’ll fall apart and mix together eventually, so there’s no need to slice perfectly. . Add apple slices to a large saucepan with liquid and salt and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Cover partially with lid, checking and stirring occasionally. You will notice that the apples will release their own juices at this time and it may seem like there is too much liquid in the mixture. Don’t worry, almost all of this will evaporate during the cooking process.
Once the apples have turned into applesauce and the liquids have mostly evaporated, break up any large chunks with a spatula and remove from heat. Use an immersion blender to turn the apples completely into a saucepan. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender or any food processor. Return the puree to the saucepan (if any) and stir constantly over medium heat for another 10-15 minutes.
During this time, the mixture will bubble and splatter hot apple lava if you stop stirring. It will be very hot, so please keep stirring to avoid bubbles and splashes. You can stir lazily, but don’t move away from it or you’ll have a mess. During this time, more water will evaporate, and after about 10 minutes you can remove from heat. Add honey, sugar and cinnamon and stir until fully combined. Let the hot apple mixture cool, partially covered, on the counter for about an hour before transferring it to chilled containers in the refrigerator.
Like honey made from different kinds of flowers, the type of apple you use doesn’t matter, you’ll just get that kind of apple butter. Fuji Apple Butter, Honeycrisp Apple Butter, Gala, Grannysmith, variations are part of the apple season fun. Use this sweet, velvety spread as a dipping sauce for more apple slices, spoon it over ice cream, add to oatmeal, or spread over fluffy challah slices.
Honey apple oil
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds apples, sliced into ½-inch thick slices (I used 6 medium Honeycrisp apples)
- ¾ cup water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Add apples to a large saucepan with water, salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. Stir over medium heat for 30-35 minutes, or until the apples are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Blend the apples with an immersion blender or any food processor until velvety smooth.
Return to medium-low heat and stir slowly but constantly, 15 minutes more, until slightly thickened. Remove apple butter from heat and add sugar, cinnamon and honey until fully combined. Taste. Here you can adjust the taste by adding a little more lemon juice or a little more honey. Let cool for an hour on the counter before putting it in the refrigerator. Keep in mind that the honey-apple butter will thicken slightly as it cools.
This recipe makes six cups of apple butter. Store in jars, give as gifts, or store in the refrigerator for personal storage. Other blogs and websites claim homemade apple butter lasts 1-3 months, but I’ve never had that long. I recommend using it for two or three weeks.