Crane's Crock Pot Apple Butter Recipe

Do you ever have extra apples and wonder what to make next with them?  Apple butter is a sweetly spiced concentration that is smoother than jam on buttered toast or biscuits. It can also be thinned down for a sauce for pork.  It isn’t a butter at all!  You can run this through a food mill or sieve for a smooth apple butter or leave it chunky and these apples cook with the skins and cores for the extra flavor. Any kind of apple will make apple butter!  By cooking in the crock pot, it eliminates the need to watch for burning and your house will smell like no candle ever made!
 
Cooking Time – 6 hours
Yield – 4 cups
 
Ingredients:
10 to 12 medium apples washed and cut into 2 in chunks, leaving them unpeeled and uncored
4 cups apple cider
2 - 2 inch sticks of cinnamon (can sub 2 t ground cinnamon
1 inch peeled ginger, sliced (can sub 1 t ground ginger)
3 allspice berries (can sub ½ t ground allspice)
2 whole cloves (can sub ¼ t ground cloves)
1 ¼ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
 
Put all ingredients except the sugars in a crock pot and cook on high for 2 hours or until apples are soft.  Remove from crock pot and take out the whole spices and run the apple pulp through a food mill or a sieve, or if you prefer a chunky apple butter and just remove the spices.  Return the sauce to the crock pot and add both sugars and stir to mix.  Cook on low for another 3 to 4 hours or until the sauce is thick and not runny.  Will keep for weeks if stored in the refrigerator in a covered container.