18. 11. 2022
| Reading time 3 minutes
Use your apple crop to make delicious homemade butter. A great delicacy that has a Belgian tradition. You will see that you will like it right away.
If you don’t have enough storage space, you can store or preserve a rich crop of apples. However, you also have another option and that is the production of so-called apple butter. However, it’s not an ordinary type of butter, rather it’s a highly concentrated form of sauce or applesauce, which is created by long, slow cooking.
Apple butter with tradition in Belgium
Presumably, apple butter comes from America, where it was widely used already in the 19th century. It is currently a very popular part of the menu in the southern United States of America. In Europe it has a tradition especially in Belgium, but it is in great demand in Holland and our German neighbors.
You can use apple butter when baking desserts, and you can even use it to replace some of the shortening in recipes.
Apple butter has a specific texture
As a result, this snack has a brown color and does not contain milk like regular butter. The name itself comes from the dense and at the same time stiff consistency, which is very reminiscent of this food. Plus, it has a much longer shelf life than our favorite applesauce.
What can it be used for?
Basically it is apples cooked very slowly and for a long time together with spices. Gradually, a smooth apple mass will be created, which is suitable not only for toasts or baguettes, but also for yoghurts or pancakes. Similarly, you can use apple butter to bake desserts, and you can even use it to replace some of the shortening in recipes. And it is also excellent as a sauce for some types of meat.
Choosing quality apples is the basis
Always carefully collect all the apples you want to use before starting the actual production. She should be completely healthy and undefeated. Remove the core and peel from the washed apples and cut them into thin wedges.
Apple butter according to our grandmothers’ recipe
Place 2 pounds of prepared sliced apples in a saucepan and add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp cloves, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
Always carefully collect all the apples you want to use before starting the actual production. She should be completely healthy and undefeated.
A long cooking is required
Mix all the ingredients well and cook for 10 hours at low temperature. Check occasionally to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. Apples will boil over time and the mass will gradually thicken. As soon as a thick, pasty consistency forms, remove the pot from the heat and let the contents cool down a bit.
A second firing will guarantee a quality result
Then strain the apple butter into a clean saucepan and boil it for about an hour at a moderate temperature. This time without a lid to let all the excess liquid evaporate. Then pour the cooked butter into the prepared jars, let it cool and store in the fridge.
Resources: www.theolive.cz, www.fresh.iprima.cz, www.receptyprimanapadu.cz
