Apple Butter

My mom is an amazing cook. She taught me a lot about food and I still have a lot more to learn. It’s thanks to her that I’ve got a very broad pallet and a willingness to try new things. I also have the understanding that, sometimes, good food takes time. This is probably why I spent six hours yesterday making apple butter.
Growing up my mom would make special things at different times of the year. Handmade chocolate covered marshmallow Easter eggs for Easter and the most amazing gingerbread houses I’ve ever seen outside a professional patisserie for Christmas... the list goes on. Like I said, my mom is amazing. 
Now that I have a place and a husband (taste tester) of my own I’m starting to try and make this stuff myself. I decided sometime this summer that I was going to make apple butter in the fall once apples had gone on sale and I wouldn’t turn our little apartment into an oven by making it. I also wanted to wait until I had pumpkin spice chai tea again to add to the flavor. 
So yesterday We bought a big bag of apples and I set to work. It took a lot longer for me to make than it normally would since I was using a crock pot to slow cook everything and I don’t have a food mill so I had to render everything down with a mortar and a fine mesh sieve. But thankfully my patience paid off. I now have enough apple butter for further kitchen experiments as well as on toast. I have plans for a spice cake while my husband wants to try it in a barbecue sauce. 
Let the deliciousness begin.


Recipe
4Lb of cooking apples (Granny Smiths are good. I used Gala. I'd love to use a mix of Pink Lady and Honey Crisp)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups unsweetened apple sauce (Unsweetened apple juice works well too)
2-4 cups brown sugar loose ( the amount of sugar varies to your taste I only used 2 cups)
Cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves to taste (I was going by the measurement of the 'Some' here)
1 large tea ball of Pumpkin Spice Chai (Entirely optional but I found it added a really beautiful note of flavour)


Cube whole apples (Skins, cores and all) and place in a crock-pot. Add spices, sugar, vinegar and apple sauce or juice, cover and cook on high for about two hours stirring occasionaly until apples are soft. 
Render your apple butter down in a food mill and return it to the crock-pot along with the tea ball and continue cooking uncovered, stirring frequently, until it reaches the proper consistency. A small bit spooned onto a chilled (in the freezer) plate will be thick, not runny.
Pour apple butter into hot sterilized jars and seal. Makes roughly 3 pints
Enjoy