Apple Butter

Marie Overton
Jul 22, 2022
2 min read

Updated: Mar 15

Washington State has many varieties of fruit. Apples are one of my favorite. Making apple butter becomes so much easier if you use a steamer juicer to remove the juice first. This greatly reduces the cooking time and gives a byproduct of apple juice. Making fruit butter is such a great way not to waste any part of the fruit when juicing. Fruit butter tends to be smoother with more spices and less sugar than jam.

Ingredients to Make Apple Butter:

4 pounds of Apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)
2 cups White Sugar
2 cups Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves

Making the Apple Butter:

Wash, peel, core and slice about 4 pounds of apples with a corer, slicer, peeler.

Hands holding a tube, draining liquid from a pot on a stove into a clear container. Stove dials are visible. Indoor kitchen setting.

juice byproduct

You can cook them down with 1/4 cup of water or use the steamer juicer (My preferred method.) This both gives you apple juice and the pulp for making apple butter.

Chopped apples in a pot stirred with a spoon, surrounded by bowls of brown sugar, cinnamon, and white sugar on a granite countertop.

Prepare Your Canning Equipment:

Just before your apples are done softening prepare your boiling water bath canner with enough water to cover 3 pint-sized jars with 1-2 inches of water. Place the water bath canner on the stove on low to medium heat. Next, prepare your jars by making sure they are clean and hot. Now that your equipment is ready, it is time to start making apple butter.

Add the remaining ingredients to the apples to make apple butter.

In a large pot, mix the apples with 2 cups of white sugar, 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves.

A hand holds a square spice jar over a pot filled with white and brown sugars and cinnamon on a speckled countertop.

Simmer until thick.

Person in blue sleeve ladles brown liquid from pot into jar through a funnel. Red floral spatula on speckled countertop.

Using a jar funnel, pour or ladle the butter into clean, hot, pint-sized jars leaving ¼ inch headspace. Place the lids and rings on and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner at sea level or adjust for your elevation. After the timer has gone off, remove the lid, turn off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.

Remove the jars from the water bath. Allow them to sit on the counter for 24 hours then check if they sealed properly. The center will be indented down if they are. If not, place any unsealed jars in the refrigerator and use them right away. If they did seal, remove the rings and wash them in hot soapy water.

Place the sealed jars in a cool, dry area and use them within the next 3 years. After that, the nutritional value begins to decrease.