Recipes Using Apple Butter (2024)

FAQs

What can I use apple butter for? ›

Apple butter can be a great way to balance sauces, marinades, glazes, sandwich spreads and dressings. It can add depth of flavor and moisture to baked goods like muffins, cakes, waffles, and cookies. And it can be swirled into cheesecake, ice cream, and oatmeal!

But the apple butter has a more concentrated, rich flavor. It works wonders in a cake, especially compared to applesauce. Sure, applesauce is great and delivers a lot of moisture to baked goods, but it rarely brings tons of fall, apple flavor. That's why apple butter is here to save the day!

*You can also preserve your apple butter via the water-bath canning method, which uses a canning pot. The recommending processing time is 10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes for quarts. Home-canned apple butter has a shelf life of about two years. Store in a cool, dark place.

Sometimes seasoned with cinnamon, clove, and other spices, apple butter is usually spread on bread, used as a side dish, an ingredient in baked goods, or as a condiment.

Average shelf life unopened is 11 months. But after you open a jar, it is very important it is re-capped and refrigerated. It will last about a month in the refrigerator, but we usually finish out a jar in a couple of days. The same goes for any baked goods or cooked items made with apple butter.

Since it's sweet, apple butter can pair with many different kinds of cheeses — try your favorites and see what works best. If you need some suggestions to begin, try a sharp cheddar, an oozy brie, or a tangy chèvre.

Applesauce is a fairly quick process, cooked apples run through a food mill. Apple butter is basically concentrated apple sauce, cooked down even more until it's thicker, silkier, and more intensely apple flavored. Like the difference between tomato sauce and tomato paste, essentially.

Apple butter and applesauce are similar. The key difference is that applesauce is made with water and sugar and fewer spices. Applesauce is also eaten on its own as a snack or as a side dish while apple butter, with its more concentrated flavor, is used as a condiment or topping for toast or muffins.

Apple Butter 101

Quite simply, it's homemade applesauce that has been cooked quite a bit longer, which intensifies the flavor and gives it a caramelized color. It is then pureed for a super-smooth texture. It tastes like an ultra-concentrated, incredibly thick, and smooth version of applesauce.

Yes! Freeze cooled apple butter in freezer containers for up to three months. Liquids expand as they freeze, so leave extra room at the top of the freezer container. Thaw the apple butter in the refrigerator when you're ready to use.

Why is my apple butter so dark? ›

During the slow cooking, the sugars that are naturally present in the apples caramelize into a deep, molasses-like flavor, and a dark color. This gives the apple butter its rich, sweet flavor and dark brown hue.

Apple butter is a spreadable preserve made by slow-cooking apples with warming spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. The apples are cooked for a long time over low heat, caramelizing them, concentrating their flavor and turning them into a spreadable consistency.

2. apple butter. "flattery, smooth talk"

Historians do know that apple butter can be traced back to Germany and Belgium during the Middle Ages. The practice was likely brought to Appalachia by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who migrated to Western North Carolina after the American Revolutionary War.

Apple butter and peanut butter were destined to be together, don't you think? Add a healthy dose of cinnamon with a touch of vanilla and maple syrup and you have one of my favourite butters of all time. It's a little sweet and ultra creamy, with a hint of tart apple to round it all out.

But when it comes down to it, both applesauce and apple butter can often be exchanged in baking recipes — especially when used as a replacement for some of the butter, oil, or eggs.

Mix it with plain yogurt or cottage cheese like the Pennsylvania Dutch prefer. Spread on graham crackers. Spread on a melted cheese sandwich. Add several tablespoons to a can of baked beans (hot sauce optional).

For an appetizer, I use this spread on wheat crackers. You could use any variety of cracker you like. Bagel chips, rye toast and even mini English muffins would be a great base for this easy apple butter spread.

Apple sauce is a lightly cooked purée of that fruit, sometimes spiced with cinnamon. Apple butter is a relatively deep reduction of apple sauce to where it spreads like a loose jelly. Any seasonings or spices will vary from family to family like a stew recipe.