Name: Apple Butter in Instant Pot Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 kg apples (cored and sliced); 120 g brown sugar; 1/2 tsp vanilla concentrate; 1 tsp cinnamon; 50 ml water; 1/4 tsp all spice; 1/4 tsp salt

Table of Contents

We have a little crab apple tree in the garden. Not particularly good apples it produces, in fact, not very tasty. When they start falling off the tree and rotting on the ground is when critters tend to eat them. Anyway, I have used some of the apples for this and that since we moved in three years ago, mainly for cooking: mixed them with berries for crumble, mostly. This year I was testing a new slow cooker (Instant Pot – you can read the review here) and I decided to make apple butter with it. I do like apple sauce and apple butter, I use it to dollop it onto pancakes and French toast, stir it into porridge, and cereal.

What is Apple Butter?

Apple butter is a rich, sweet spread made from slowly cooked apples, sugar, and warming, sweet spices. It’s a condiment that has its roots in early American cooking, where it was created as a way to preserve the apple harvest. The name “apple butter” comes from its smooth, buttery texture and the fact that it contains no actual butter; rather, it is achieved through the long cooking process that caramelizes the sugars in the apples.

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What to Eat Apple Butter With?

One classic pairing is with warm, freshly baked bread or rolls. Slathering a thick layer of apple butter on a warm biscuit… yumm. For breakfast, consider using apple butter on pancakes or waffles instead of syrup. Another delicious option is to spread it on toast, topped with cream cheese or ricotta for a creamy balance. If you’re feeling adventurous, try apple butter in savory dishes! It pairs wonderfully with pork, turkey, or even as a glaze for roasted vegetables. Hosting a cheese board? Apple butter complements sharp cheeses beautifully, because of the sweet contrast.

How to Make Homemade Apple Butter?

Just pick the apples or buy some in the supermarket, wash them, core them, slice them and they are good to go into the Instant Pot or slow cooker with just three simple spices: vanilla, cinnamon and all spice (we all have these in the pantry) and a little bit of water and brown sugar. Of course, you can swap the brown sugar for any other sugar too – but I like using brown sugar, practically for everything. Once it’s cooked, you just need to blend the stewed apples into apple butter.

Is This Apple Butter Shelf Stable?

No. This is apple butter isn’t canned so, it needs to be refrigerated or stored in the freezer. However, you can turn them into shelf-stable sauce with simple canning procedure, see below. Shelf-stable food is food of a type that can be safely stored at room temperature in a sealed container. This apple butter isn’t.

Canning Instructions

If you’d like to can your apple butter, it’s possible and very easy to do so. Process jars of apple butter in a water bath canner for 5 minutes for pints or under and 10 minutes for litre.

Can You Freeze Apple Butter?

Yes, this is totally fine up to a year when stored in the freezer.

What Apples to Use for Apple Butter?

Like I said, I literally picked our little crab apples from the garden, so in my opinion, any apple will work. Obviously, the better the quality of the apple, the better the apple butter will be – but it’s not a significant difference.

Varieties like Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and Fuji are excellent choices. Granny Smith will add a delightful tartness, while Honeycrisp will have a lovely balance of sweetness and crispness. You can also consider using a mix of apples too: basically, what you have at home! For example, blending a tart apple with a sweeter one, such as Combine Gala with the tartness of Jonathan apples.