Crock pot apple butter: easy and FABULOUS.

My brother-in-law gave us about 12 lbs of Fuji apples. Having canned applesauce off of our own little harvest from our dwarf tree, what would we do with them? I've always loved apple butter; a simple sweet and deeply flavorful spiced treat on buttered toasts or biscuits. Having never made it, the plethora of easy crock pot apple butter recipes called to me.

Reviewing all that were out there, I made some adjustments, and... oh man. This is so easy and delicious. So. Good. Most recipes had waaaaaay too much sugar. (One said 4 cups of sugar for 5.5 lbs of apples. WTF!?) I made one batch, and I'm making another. YUMMMMM.

Amy's Crock Pot Apple Butter

6 lbs apples (I used Fuji; use a sweet, crisp variety or a mix of apple varieties)
1 cup sugar (if you use tart apples, you may need to use more)
3 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

1. Use an apple cutter to core and cut apples.
2. Run apples through the food processor using a shredding disk. (Yes, with skin on!)
3. Stir sugar, spices and salt together in a small bowl.
4. Put shredded apples into crock pot.
5. Toss the sugar/spice/salt mixture together with the shredded apples in the crock pot.
6. Set crock pot to high, cook for four hours, stirring now and then.
7. Puree the hot apple mixture, and return it to the crock pot. (I used a traditional blender; you could use a stick blender if you have a good one, or use the food processor again.)
8. Cook uncovered until thickened. (Lower temp to medium or low if your "high" setting looks like it might scorch the edge of the reducing apple butter.

You can jar and water bath process this for ten minutes if you want to preserve for longer; otherwise you can keep this in the fridge for a few weeks. Not that it'll last that long...