Apple butter is a delightful preserve made with fresh apples and warm fall spices. It is a perfect condiment to make at home when you have an abundance of apples in the fall.
It is very easy to make apple butter in the bread machine. It turns out thick in texture, and sweet in taste with a slight tang and warm flavors of spices. You can enjoy it with your morning toast, waffles, pancakes, and ice creams.
Although it sounds like apple butter would be made with butter, the fact is there is no butter. It has a smooth consistency like butter and can be used as a spread.
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Ingredients
You need fresh apples including a combination of sweet and tart varieties just like when you make apple cider. Apples like Gala, Fuji, Ambrosia, and Red apples can be used in combination with McIntosh or Pink Lady.
If you choose apples that are both sweet and tart like Honeycrisp or Braeburn then you can just use one variety of apples. The amount of sugar may need to be adjusted depending on the variety of apples used and how sweet of apple butter you prefer.
A combination of organic cane sugar and brown sugar is used for sweetness and giving the apple butter a dark brown color.
Cinnamon powder and ground allspice gives the warmth and spiciness and a little bit of vanilla extract enhances the overall flavor.
Instructions
To make apple butter in a bread machine, rinse, peel, and core the apples. You can use a vegetable peeler or an apple peeler to peel the apples. An apple cutter comes in very handy to core and slice the apples.
You can further chop the apples into smaller chunks to blend them easily. Once the apples are cut and cored, blend them into a smooth puree in a blender.
Step 1: Gather all the ingredients to make apple butter.
Step 2: Peel, core, and blend the apples into a smooth puree.
Place all the wet and dry ingredients including the apple puree, sugar, spices, salt, and vanilla extract into the bread machine pan. Select and start the jam cycle.
The bread machine jam cycle will keep mixing and heating all the ingredients at regular intervals. At the end of the cycle, you will have a nice caramel color and thick apple butter.
Using mittens, carefully lift the bread machine pan and then transfer it to clean jars. Allow the apple butter to cool down completely before storing it.
Step 3: Put all the ingredients in the bread machine pan.
Step 4: Apple butter will be ready once the jam cycle is done.
Substitutions
- Apples - depending on the type of apples you use, you can adjust the amount of sugar.
You may also like bread machine strawberry jam, bread machine mixed berry jam, and bread machine peach jam.
Serving suggestions
Apple butter can be spread on toast, bagels, banana muffins, oatmeal, ice cream, cinnamon raisin bread, walnut cranberry bread, pancakes, and waffles. You can use it as a puff pastry filling to make turnovers.
You can also serve it on a cheeseboard as a dip to accompany assorted cheeses. A spoonful of apple butter in smoothies like mixed berry smoothie, cereals, and yogurt can add a lot of flavor.
Equipment
I have made this apple butter recipe from scratch in the 2. lb Hamilton Beach Artisan bread machine. It has a "jam" setting. Any bread machine with a jam setting should work well to make the apple butter.
You can check out this awesome collection of bread machine recipes and vegan bread machine recipes.
Storage
Apple butter can be stored in clean mason jars in the refrigerator for about 2 months. You can also freeze the apple butter for about 6 months. Let the apple butter cool down completely and then portion it and store it in freezer-safe ziplock bags or freezer-safe container.
When you are ready to use it, simply put the frozen apple butter container in the refrigerator to thaw and use it as needed.
Top tip
- It is best to use a combination of sweet and tart apples for a delicious, flavorful, and sweet apple butter with a slight tangy taste.
- An apple cutter comes in very handy to core and cut the apples into slices.
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📖 Recipe
Bread Machine Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 2 lb Apples (1.5 lb, peeled and cored, assorted (see notes))
- ¼ cup Organic cane sugar
- ¼ cup Brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon Allspice powder
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 pinch Salt
Instructions
- Rinse, peel, and core the apples.2 lb Apples
- Cut the apples into pieces and blend them into a puree in the blender.
- Place the pureed apples, sugar, vanilla extract, spices and salt in the bread machine pan.2 lb Apples, ¼ cup Organic cane sugar, ¼ cup Brown sugar, 1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon Allspice powder, 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract, 1 pinch Salt
- Select and start the "Jam" cycle
- Once jam cycle is complete, transfer the apple butter to a sterilized jar and let it cool. (CAUTION! bread pan will be very hot!)
- Once cooled, store the apple butter in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Use a combination of sweet and tart apples.
- You can use apples like Ambrosia, Red apples, Gala, Fuji with a combination of a slightly tart apples like McIntosh and Pink Lady.
Faith says
Do you think you could replace the apples with pumpkin purée and make pumpkin butter 🤔
Alpa Jain says
Hi Faith
That sounds like a great idea! I think it should work well, I have not tried it though. Let me know how it turns out.
Cheers,
Alpa