Crab Apple Butter Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Crab Apple Butter Recipe

A delicious and versatile preserve that you make with crab apples (or windfall apples), sweeter eating apples, brown sugar, and autumn spices. Serve it as you would other preserves on toast, crumpets, pancakes, yogurt, or desserts, or with holiday cheeseboards. Makes two pints, but the recipe may be scaled up.

Course Preserves

Cuisine American, British

Keyword apple

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 15

Total Time 1 45

Servings pints

Calories 27kcal

Author Tanya Anderson

Cost $5

Equipment

Ingredients

To make the stewed apple puree

5.5 cups chopped eating apples those with a sweet, crisp flavor like Granny Smith, Cortland, or Braeburn 680 g
3 cups chopped crabapples You can also use windfall apples, cooking apples, or flowering quince / 320 g
4.25 cups apple juice 1 Liter
4 allspice berries
4 cloves
3 cardamom pods lightly crushed

To make crab apple butter

1.75 cups dark brown sugar packed / 400 g
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/16 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Prepare the apples

Clean and chop the apples into small pieces. Small crabapples only need halving, while larger apples need to be quartered. You can leave the skin, seeds, and cores as they'll be sieved out later.

Cook down the apples

Put the apples in a large pot with the apple juice and whole spices (not the ground ones, though) and bring it to a boil. Then, reduce the heat and keep it at a steady simmer until it's soft and pulpy. Stewing can take around 20-45 minutes*, and make sure to stir it regularly while it's cooking.
Put the pulp through a vegetable mill or fine sieve. This process removes the skin and seeds, creating a thin apple sauce.

Make Crab Apple Butter

Return it to the cleaned pan and stir in the dark brown sugar, ground spices, salt, and vanilla.
Bring the mixture to a simmer on medium-low heat, stirring regularly until the apple butter is very thick. Getting to this point can take thirty minutes or more.
You know it's finished if you draw a spoon through the mixture and it leaves a brief but clean path behind it at the bottom of the pan. Another sign is if the apple butter holds its form when scooped up with a spoon.
Pour the apple butter through a preserving funnel and into warmed and sterilized preserving jars. Tighten the lids immediately.
Water-bath the jars for ten minutes, then cool and store for up to a year in the kitchen cupboard.

Notes

Cooking times may vary depending on which type of apples you use. Crab apples and flowering quince are generally small and firm and take longer than cooking or eating apples.

Nutrition