Crab Apple Butter

I grew up on a farm in Manitoba, Canada with several fruit trees. A couple of them were crab apple trees (I’m not sure what type) and I always made crab apple butter with the fruit.

Have you ever tasted crab apples? It seems like most people have them as ornamentals, because the blossoms are stunning, but don’t use the fruit. They’re very tart compared to standard apples, and aren’t palatable raw. I consider them to be too sour for applesauce, too, but do they ever make good apple butter. The extended cooking time brings out some sweetness, as you’re essentially reducing applesauce for a few hours.

Regular apples work well for apple butter too, and can be subbed in this recipe. Apple butter is so luxurious and possibly the best thing to put on toast. It makes an especially nice plant-based option, because it’s almost creamy tasting. It also costs an arm and a leg to buy, but making it is cheap, albeit time consuming.

Step by Step

Recipe Notes

Making apple butter is a bit of a process, but don’t let it intimidate you. I promise that contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, it doesn’t need constant stirring. I stir it about every half hour for the first couple of hours, then a little more frequently once it starts to thicken considerably.

You can make it in a slow cooker if you want to, but keep in mind that it’ll take at least triple the amount of time that way. I much prefer making it in a wide, shallow pan so that a large amount is exposed to heat.

Apple butter can be preserved, either frozen or canned. I do a water bath method but since this hasn’t been tested in a lab, I can’t provide canning specifics. If you’re unfamiliar with canning, just freeze it if you want it to last longer.

Lemon juice preserves the colour more effectively and prevents the apples from browning.

Making the Apple Sauce

A food mill is helpful if you want to make things like applesauce and crushed tomatoes from scratch, especially if you’re planning on doing a significant amount of canning. Otherwise, if you’re making your applesauce from scratch for this recipe, there are a couple ways to go about it.

You can peel and core the apples, cook them down, and then puree in a blender before starting to cook it down. Or, you can throw everything in a pot, then press it through a sieve after it’s cooked.

Pressing through a sieve is better for both time and pectin quantity. Crab apples are next to impossible to peel/core as they’re so small, and both the peels and seeds add pectin to the sauce which means it thickens more quickly into butter.

I love to eat apple butter just with toast or fresh bread, but also love to add it to apple crumble bars and vegan cinnamon rolls (as a filling, along with the cinnamon – so good).

Substitutions

If you don’t have access to crab apples or a significant amount of eating apples, you can sub store bought applesauce for this recipe and cook it down into butter.

Sub maple syrup or plain sugar for the honey if preferred. Coconut sugar will ruin the colour, so I don’t recommend it.

Change up the spices as preferred. Add other spices like nutmeg or cardamom in addition to the cinnamon, or leave it out altogether.

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