Well, fall is in full swing here in Washington! Last week I visited my sweet friend Amy, who took me apple picking in her yard straight from her beautiful apple tree with her! I actually climbed to the top of the tree to get the most ripe apples I could find (this is a big deal for me... I'm a big baby about heights!). And we picked about 30 apples for our Apple Butter making adventure.
For our first batch of Apple Butter, we followed this recipe that I found on Pinterest. And while on the one hand it was absolutely delicious, on the other hand my nagging conscience had me stressing out about the amount of sugar that went into making this batch! So, I set out to make our second batch without any sugar. I searched and searched for a recipe online, but was not finding what I was looking for. So instead, I followed this guide on how to substitute sugar with Stevia, and I came up with my own spin off of the original recipe I followed.
Sugar Free Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 13 Cups of Apples: peeled, cored, and sliced thin
- 1 tsp Stevia Extract Powder (I used Trader Joe's brand)
- 5 heaping Tbsp Raw Honey
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 1/2 Cups (no sugar added) Apple Cider *you may need a little more to add to the mixture as it heats
Directions
Prepare your apples (I used a handy dandy Apple Peeler Corer Slicer!), put them in your crock pot. Sprinkle Stevia, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Honey on top. Pour cider over top, and mix ingredients together. Turn crock pot on high and cook for 5-7 hours, and add more apple cider, if needed to reach desired consistency. The butter should be boiling when you're ready to can. I personally chose to can mine in 8oz jars. I followed the instructions in this video for canning with a water bath.
However, because there is no sugar in this recipe, the consistency turns out more like an apple sauce than an apple butter (not as gewy as normal apple butter). If you come up with a way to make the recipe without sugar (or crappy sweeteners like Splenda - yuck!) and get it to a better consistency, please let me know, I'd love to try your version!
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