Mmm...Apple Butter

The Man came home at 3:30 AM and woke me up, so here I am.

One of my fondest childhood memories is being pretty young (this was a yearly thing at my parents' house) and smelling the apple butter cooking on the stove. My mother canned everything...applesauce with big chunks, apple butter, jellies, jams, veggies, soup, and even ketchup once (we don't discuss that experiment, my sister and I).

If you know my parents, who are both quite handy in the kitchen, you know that I have a lot to live up to. So with the extremes of trepidation and excitement, I made apple butter this past Monday night. And the lids even sealed!

I have been eating apple butter on Ener-G's Harvest Loaf bread for breakfast ever since. Not to mention for dessert a few times this week, too.

FYI that I suck with a camera...

Apple Butter

12 cups apples (I used organic MacIntosh)
1 cup sugar (I used organic)
1 tsp cinnamon (I am not going to repeat myself here)
3/4 cup apple cider (see above)
1/2 tsp ground cloves (and again)

Combine apples and cider in a big pot (I used my Calphalon 6-quart stock pot). Cover and cook on low to medium heat (depending on how fast you want to shovel this into your mouth), stirring as needed. Once the apples are soft and your house smells incredible, run them through a food mill. Put the mixture back into the pot; add the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and then cook (leave the lid off), stirring occasionally, until it reaches the consistency you want.

Toast some GF bread, slather on the apple butter, pick out the cat hair, and fill your mouth with Fall.