Slow Cooker Apple Butter Recipe

The most incredible slow cooker apple butter ever is here! This homemade from scratch recipe is so easy to make and super delicious on toast. We even serve it with our pork chops with apples for dinner. You’ve got to try some this week.

Do you know how to make apple butter? If you’ve had it before you know it is amazing on toast, biscuits, and even pork chops! It’s actually easy to make and really easy with this slow cooker apple butter recipe. Here’s the best apple butter recipe I’ve come across yet, special thanks goes out to Nature’s Path Foods for sponsoring this post so we could share one of our favorite crockpot recipes with you. (originally published 6/17, affiliate links present)

Crockpot Apple Butter

If you love a bunch of different things to serve with toast for breakfast, this is one of the best. With or without some honey butter underneath, it brings a fresh sweetness to every bite.

Better yet you can make it yourself so you know exactly what’s inside. Then store it for up to two weeks in the fridge. Enjoy it for quite some time yourself or can it and share with your friends. This makes for a great holiday gift idea for neighbors too!

FIRST – You should sign up for my free newsletter so you get new posts emailed to you twice a week and never miss out on anything! Let’s talk a little bit about slow cooking shall we?? First off I have a few different varieties and I love them all. Each one has an occasion to be used like….

1. This is my favorite 6 quart programmable one with a locking lid so it’s great for bringing to a potluck too.
2. If you just want to serve a few appetizers you should get this one that sit side by side one another.
3. I prefer not to use liners, but rather just spray olive oil inside before adding my food for easier cleanups.

Let me give you a peek of my pretty thang I bought recently. It goes with my kitchen so I can just leave it out on the countertop all the time. 😉

Homemade Apple Butter Recipe

Super yummy right??!! Anything having to do with apples gets 6 thumbs up from my girls.  I love just how easy this is to make.

For us, eating organic food is important. We worked with a company called Natures Path recently and have been tinkering with recipes on their site. We made a few healthier desserts and then decided to make this. If you love apple picking with your family you might need an idea on how to use them up in the best way.

Ok so you may not have an apple orchard near you but just love fresh fruit recipes that your kids will love. They may actually like this better than the preservative packed bags of jelly beans. Then you can go a step further and show them how homemade fruit snacks are way better than store bought too.

Slow Cooker Apple Butter No Sugar

You could certainly make this sugar free with some sweetness by using a sugar alternative like Sweet and Low or some Agave nectar. Leave it out entirely all together if you don’t want it at all and enjoy all the natural flavors from your fresh fruit.

Best apples for apple butter

Let’s talk about selecting your 3 pounds of apples. They are tons of choices when it comes to sweet apples, most common would be honey crisp apples, golden delicious fresh apples, and Fuji. Green Granny Smith are quite tart and I wouldn’t recommend them, if so just use a few.

Any way you “slice it” your house smells amazing with any of these delicious apples when you make this in your Crock pot.

1. Apples of course, choose red varieties of apples for a sweeter taste or green for more tart
2. Ginger
3. Apple cider is much better than water for a liquid
4. Maple syrup – real is best
5. Cinnamon
6. A little brown sugar will add some sweetness
7. Cardamom
8. Anise star adds flavor but isn’t completely necessary

The great thing about this is after some time in their crock, you can lift the whole thing out and stick it right into the oven. NO need to transfer it into a dutch oven or otherwise because the inner liner is oven safe as is. When done serve with toast or fluffy Bisquick biscuits.

Old Fashioned Apple Butter Recipe

Seriously….I will never buy apple butter again. This recipe is amazing and I like knowing exactly what is in it. Served on a roll or toast it is a great breakfast. It’s also amazing on top of these pressure cooker pork chops.

Once you love this I would grab some more bags of fruit and make our crustless apple pie (what we call it). I mean seriously you will go crazy over Crockpot apple crisp. One year we went picking in the country and brought home like 65 lbs. of Fuji, our favorite. That year we created SO many fresh apple recipes it was ridiculous.

We tamed it down in years to come because it was a bit much but still have a fun afternoon and bring home a good thirty pounds worth. If you have a basement or live in cold weather like we do they save quite well. Just set the boxes in the garage or under the house. Rotate every week or so and they’ll save for a few months.

How to Make Homemade Apple Butter

There is a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post but here is a quick step by step to look at before you get started:

• Remove skins, core and dice your apples. Put into your slow cooker. Then, add all your other ingredients listed in the recipe below. Put star anise, cinnamon sticks and cardamom on top.
• Put top on and set to high heat. Cook for 4 hours stirring 1-2 times during this time. Remove large pieces of cinnamon, anise and cardamom.
• Add softened apples into a stand or immersion blender. Blend until smooth as you’d like it to be, some like some texture.
• Pour contents back into the crock portion of your crockpot. Remove from outside basin of slow cooker and put just ceramic bowl with contents into your oven
• Cook at 325 degrees for 1-1.5 hrs. stirring every 20 minutes. Serve immediately or this is how to can jam in mason jars.

Looking to make something else that is similar but way faster?? Try our Instant Pot applesauce and/or Instant Pot pumpkin butter also.

How to save leftovers – This does make a fair amount. You could cut it in half if you needed to or just save the rest. I included a link on how to can properly which will make it last a good year when stored properly. You can keep in the fridge and eat within a week or two, or pour into a freezer bag or container and freeze it.

The last method will change the texture a bit, note that. It isn’t my favorite method for jams and jellies but you could. Allow it to defrost in the fridge and then stir it up before serving. There will be some separation when it warms up so you’ll want to fold it all together so it doesn’t look weird.