I made up a new thing. It's called melted apple butter. And it's called that because that sounds better than apple I-was-too-impatient-to-wait-for-it-to-reduce-all-the-way butter.
Yeah. I had the best of intentions to make apple butter yesterday, forgetting my complete lack of patience in the kitchen. By the time I had peeled, cored, and quartered six pounds of apples, then cooked them until soft, mashed them with a potato masher, added honey* and cinnamon, and let them simmer for over two hours, running into the kitchen every twenty minutes or so to stir so it wouldn't scorch, I was SO OVER the apple-not-quite-butter. So I gave up.
Yes, I am a lesson in persistence to all.
It's pretty much a sweetened, thickened applesauce, which is actually delicious and which I put in my oatmeal this morning to good effect. So we'll just use this . . . stuff for oatmeal and yogurt. And I will never again fool myself into thinking that I possess the patience to reduce anything for longer than an hour.
It's good to know your limitations.
* The Ball Blue Book recipe for apple butter calls for four pounds of apples and TWO CUPS of sugar. Phoo-D's recipe for apple butter calls for five pounds of apples and 1/4-1/2 cups of honey. I used six pounds of apples and a half cup of honey and it was PLENTY sweet. So go with Phoo-D on this one. Unless you have insulin handy for the diabetic shock that will probably occur if you actually ingest the Ball version.
6 comments:
Yikes! The Blue Ball book is trying to kill us all! =) Glad that your apple butter turned out, melted or otherwise! I was sad to see the last of ours disappear.
Mmmm apple kinda-butter...
Don't feel bad. I did a slow cooker version of pear butter and STILL didn't have the patience to get it reduced all the way. I called it pear sauce and ate it anyway. And baked with it, too. Sometimes "mistakes" turn out great. I mean, when you think about it, isn't the sauce more versatile than the butter anyway?
Got to say, with my muted sweet sensitive taste buds I'd have to go with the Ball version. I'm impressed that you hung in as long as you did! Sounds really yummy though. Enjoy, because you'll not be experiencing all those homemade extras you visit.
I like my apple butter in the crockpot. A slow cooker is a great thing for impatient cooks; I can work on just about anything else (like blogging! And online shopping!) while the apple butter reduces. Yum. And the house smells soooooo good.
Apple butter the easy way. Boil down some cider until it's reduced to a syrup. Add the apples and cook down until thickened. Add spices near the end because I don't like spices that have been cooked to death. I think they lose their flavor and have a burnt taste. This cooks down quickly (before I get bored with it) doesn't need a whole lot of added sugar and thickens nicely and has tons of apple flavor, all because of the cider. Oh, if it needs any sweetener I add it near the end so it doesn't end up way too sweet.
Sheila Z
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