Friday, September 26, 2008

Sure Smells Like Fall in My House!



Here in New England the orchards are just overflowing with apples. Along the roadside there's plenty of trees weighed down with beautiful, ripe apples. Many go unpicked and that's really a shame. The town I live in, here in the Berkshires, there's quite a few peach and apple orchards. We take advantage of this time of year as it really brings in the change of the seasons so nicely. After our visit to Sturbridge on Thursday, I made this delicious apple pie and then canned some apple butter. The pie was yummy, and broke my no-sugar, low-carb diet. Well, Fall only comes once a year and I don't want to miss out. The apple butter came out really good, too, and the aroma in my house, well, screamed FALL! I hope you enjoy the recipe below - oh, and I doubled the recipe:

Apple Butter
Yield: about 3 pints
4 lbs (about 16) apples
4 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
Core, peel and and quarter apples. Combine apples and 2 cups water in large pot. Simmer until apples are soft. Puree using food processor or food mill. Measure 2 cups apple pulp.
To Make Butter: Combine apple pulp, sugar and spices in large pot. Cook slowly 'til thick enough to round up on a spoon. This takes about 2-1/2 hours. Stir frequently. Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
Recipe loosely taken from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving

3 comments:

BumbleBee Bagz said...

mmmmmm, I love apple butter.

Robin said...

mmmmm, smells delicious!

Mrs. Darling said...

Your pie looks wonderful I make my own apple butter too. Theres nothing like that smell in the house while it cooks, is there?