Apple Butter: enough said.

There’s something about the leaves transitioning from perky green to burnt orange that makes me crave apple butter.

I'm prone to just buying some from the grocery store when I'm feeling lazy. However, it doesn’t really curb the craving. It just becomes another thing to eat instead of an all-inclusive sensory experience. I say this because the brand I buy doesn’t use cinnamon or cloves in their recipe. They don't use those warm cuddly spices that make you cozy.

I use those warm spices in my recipe. I also use a variety of tart, crisp, and sweet apples to make my butter. The taste isn’t just sweet. It’s more complicated than that. Each apple seems to retain its natural characteristics while blending in with the flavours of its fellow apples.

Since I love apple butter so much and it evokes such happiness for me why is it that I don’t make it more often? The answer is that it’s time consuming, tedious, and I have to be in just the right mood. The mood requires a good soundtrack or playlist.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist was my young adulthood. Actually to be precise, I read everything that David Levithan wrote with great enthusiasm. I had the vast majority of a chapter of The Realm of Possibility written on my wall when I was thirteen. I rewrote the playlist in one of the chapters of my copy of Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List. I didn’t like the Ramones “I wanna be your boyfriend” at the time. I’ve grown up quite significantly.

My point is, those books taught me that good music can get you through almost anything. A good playlist is a must when you’re peeling and chopping many apples. So I’m including the songs that helped me get through my most recent apple chopping session.

All you had to do was stay – Ryan Adams

Ain’t that nothin’ (run through) – Television

Be my lover – Alice Cooper

Spooky Tooth – u-ziq

Fun, fun, fun – Beach Boys

Gloria: in excelsis deo – Patti Smith

Don’t be shy – Cat Stevens

Your body is a weapon – The Wombats

And she was – Teenage Head

Flowers on the wall – Nancy Sinatra

Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits

Woods – Bon Iver

Okay, it’s my taste in music. It’s kind of eclectic but believe me it all goes together… more or less. It definitely helps to have a playlist that can keep you calm while still giving you the odd burst of energy.

By the end of this recipe your house will smell better than the nicest scented candle on the market. And Bon Iver and scented candles just go together. Period.

Apple Butter

• A variety of apples (galas, honey crisp, ambrosia) between 15 and 20 peeled, cored, and chopped.

• Reserved apple cores if you own a juicer or 2 cups of apple juice.

Spice Sachet

• Cheese cloth.

• A cinnamon stick broken in half.

• 3 or 5 cloves.

Place the chopped apple in a large pot or Dutch oven. Juice apple cores with a juicer. Pour juice over chopped apples.

Cut enough cheese cloth to wrap the spices. Wrap cloth around the cinnamon and cloves. Use butcher’s twine to tie the cloth or close the sachet with a knot using each end of the cheese cloth. Place sachet in the pot with the apples.

Bring the pot to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn down the heat to medium and cover. Check and stir the pot every hour or so.

The longer you let the apple butter cook the better it is. I let mine cook for around 5 and half hours.

Eat, store in fridge, freeze, or can.

Apple butter lends itself nicely to canning and it’s nice to have a sweet reminder of autumn in the cold depths of January.

#Preserves #Vegan #SlowFood