What's Cookin' Wednesday

This is a day late...but I couldn't resist sharing this wonderful photo and I wish I could share the end result of what I was cookin'. On this week's menu plan, Wednesday's dinner showed Grilled Pork with Apple-Maple Glaze...but I didn't see I needed apple butter for my recipe. So Tuesday night, I found a great recipe for apple butter made in the crock pot...doesn't it look just devine!

 

Healthy Homemade Apple Butter (no sugar added)

recipe by Eating Bird Food

Healthy Homemade Apple Butter (no sugar added)

• 10 medium sized apples (choose a sweet variety like Red Delicious or Gala)
• 2 cups of unsweetened apple juice or approximately 5 apples juiced
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1/2 t pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg
• pinch of sea salt

Prep:
1. Place cored and sliced apples (not peeled) into a large crock-pot / slow cooker.

2. Juice apples and pour juice on top of sliced apples. Add water, apple cider vinegar and spices. Stir all ingredients together, cover pot and let it cook for 15 hours on low.

3. The liquid will reduce and the apples will be very soft, darker in color, and smell lovely. Turn the crock pot off and let the apples cool down a bit (about 30 minutes), then transfer the mixture into a blender (or use a hand/stick blender) and blend until completely smooth.

4. Let the apple butter cool and then transfer into storage containers. It should store well in the fridge for about 3 weeks, however I filled 8, 1/2 pint freezer-safe canning jars, put the lid on, let them cool and then placed all the jars (besides one) into the freezer. Now I have one jar to eat and some homemade Christmas gifts!!

My apple butter turned out wonderfully, thanks to Eating Bird Food - and I even had to fudge a bit because I didn't have apple cider vinegar - I used white distilled vinegar instead.  The fact that it has no added sugar makes it even better for my diabetic husband. Unfortunately, I was unable to make my Grilled Pork with Apple-Maple Glaze using the apple butter because I got sick and didn't feel like cooking anything on Wednesday. Waking up sick to a totally apply smelling house made a terrible morning a bit more bearable!

Enjoy this great recipe and be sure to visit Eating Bird Food for more great recipes and a wonderful blog! She is really an inspiring woman! Thanks for reading!