Healthy Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Apple season in the Pacific Northwest means it’s time to spend the morning out with the family picking apples at our favorite farm, and the rest of the weekend turning those apples into something delicious.

I used to try and make as many different things as I could with our apples, but that quickly left me feeling exhausted. Plus, there were definitely some recipes that were favored over others. Now when we go apple picking, I know there are only 3 things we’re going to end up doing with our apples:

Apple pie filling, a bowl of fresh apples to munch on for the next couple of weeks, and this super easy apple butter.

This apple butter doesn’t use any kind of processed sugar like typical apple butter recipes will call for. Apples are naturally sweet! And slow cooking them on low like we do in this recipe allows for their natural sugars to caramelize and sweeten your apple butter perfectly.

You’re going to want to start with about 5 lbs of apples. I used spartans because they’re our favorites (think Granny Smith brightness meets sweet & satisfying apple flavor) but any sweet variety that’s not too soft and not too tart should work nicely. The sweeter the apple, the sweeter your apple butter will be and the less sweetener you’ll want to add (if any!).

To start, peel and chop your apples into evenly sized chunks.

Add them to your slow cooker along with 1/2 cup fresh apple cider (make sure you find one without any added sugar - just pressed apples). Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.

Once your apples are soft, blend with an immersion blender until smooth.

Here’s where you can add in any additional sweeteners or spices if you’d like. You can absolutely keep it simple and just cook it down like it is. But if you want a little more flavor, or would like to sweeten it up a little, you can add in about 2 tablespoons of honey or coconut sugar.

You can also toss in 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of cinnamon to the mix, and/or a teaspoon of nutmeg, allspice, or even pie spice! There’s plenty of room to play around with flavors here and find what you like the best.

Now comes the part that requires a little patience…

Set your slow cooker to low and let your apple butter do it’s thing for 12 hours.

(Yep, you can set it to “keep warm” overnight if you’d like. It may just require a little longer cooking time, closer to 14 hours or so, but keep an eye on it and you’ll be able to tell when it’s done.)

Stir it occasionally to keep everything cooking evenly. I also recommend using a chopstick to hold your lid open a tiny bit, or simply cracking it open a little if it will stay on its own. This will help make sure your apple butter stays nice and thick for easy spreading when it’s done.

When it’s done, your apple butter should turn a beautiful deep brown caramelized color.

From here, you can either freeze or can your apple butter (which will last several months) give out as gifts to your friends and neighbors, or simply store in the fridge for a couple of weeks and enjoy it on everything!

Our favorite ways to enjoy this treat is spread atop warm sourdough toast (along with a little grass-fed butter), stirred into oatmeal or a bowl of yogurt, eaten alongside pork chops, and even drizzled on top of ice cream!

Here’s a quick recap of ingredients & the recipe:

5 lbs of apples

1/2 cup fresh apple cider (no sugar added) or water

2 tbsp honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar (optional)

1/2 - 1 tbsp cinnamon (if desired)

1 tsp allspice, nutmeg, or pie spice (if desired)

Peel and chop apples. Add to a slow cooker along with apple cider and cook on high for 2 hours.

Once apples are soft, blend with an immersion blender until smooth.

Add in sweetener and any other desired spices.

Cover, slightly cracked, and cook on low for 12 hours.