The harvest season brings crisp air, cascading leaves and a hint of the winter to come. As we prepare to hunker down for the snowy season, thoughts turn to preserving the bounty of the fall harvest. Canning autumn fruit is an excellent way to capture the season's best produce so that you can enjoy it through winter and beyond.
One of the easiest autumn fruits to can is the apple. Thanks to its relatively high acid level, you can use the simpler water-bath method of canning which saves you from having to buy a bulky and expensive pressure canner. While you can preserve applesauce, a better option would be to turn the applesauce into apple butter. Apple butter intensifies the flavor of the apple, and is not only a tasty spread, but also a wonderful gift.
Ingredients and Tools
9 quarts of unsweetened applesauce, preferably fresh. My favorite fall activity is apple picking, which bodes well for this recipe, but you can purchase apples at the grocery store. Try Gala or Honeycrisp.
2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon of allspice
4 cups of white, granulated sugar
Crock pot that holds 6 quarts
Ladle
Ball Home Canning Basics Kit or equivalent: 21 ½ quart enamel water bath canner, canning jar rack, 10 pint mason jars, 10 lids and rings, lid lifter, funnel, jar lifter and plastic spatula
Directions
Pour 6 quarts of apple sauce into the crockpot and add spices. Add about 2 cups of sugar or an equivalent. Set the crockpot to low, prop the lid so that the steam can vent, and cook down the apple sauce for 6 hours or until it is reduced by half. Then, add the rest of your applesauce and sugar, adjusting to taste, and let it cook for another couple of hours until it reaches your desired consistency. If it gets too thick, add a bit of apple juice to thin it out, and cook it more to thicken if it is too thin.
At this point, sanitize your jars and lids by placing them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and lids with the jar tongs and lid lifter carefully. Pour the hot apple butter in your canning jars (using the tongs!), leaving one-quarter inch of airspace. Wipe the rim clean, and place the lids and rings on the jars and tighten. Place the jars in water bath for 15 minutes. Once they are finished processing, pull them out of the water with tongs, and let them cool. To make sure they’re sealed, press the center of the lid to make sure it does not “pop.”
You’re almost done! If you really want to make it a nice keepsake of the season or holiday gift, consider making your own custom canning labels. These labels can contain whatever you want, but should have a description of the contents of the jar, your name and the date on which it was canned. To make a really beautiful gift, cut out a circle of festive fabric and rubber band it around the lid of the jar, and put one of your custom labels on the jar's main surface.
Guest Post By Jessica Wiener
Jessica is an expert in the online printing industry. When she is not learning about new labeling applications
and technologies, you can find her experimenting with new recipes in her kitchen and feeding them to whoever comes through the door.
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