Spiced apple butter easily made in the Instant Pot with just enough sweetness! So delicious spread on bread, as a topping for oatmeal, and so much more. This recipe also cans easily for year-long preserving!
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It’s apple season, which means we’ve traded counters full of trays of tomatoes waiting to be processed for boxes of apples waiting to be turned into delicious treats! We’ve gone apple picking every fall since the kids were fewer and much smaller. It’s a fun tradition that we look forward to every year.
I am a big fan of traditions, even if they include car sicknesses on the way to our favorite orchard. (Fingers crossed that they outgrow that one). I told myself this year that I would limit myself to one box of apples, but once we were there with row upon row of red and green fruit, none of us could resist getting a bit more.
We came home with several varieties of apples. I always make sure I get a mix because lots of what I make is better when I include more than one variety.
Today I’m sharing my simple recipe for spiced apple butter, quickly and easily made in the Instant Pot with a lot less sugar than typically found in this sweet spread. I like using coconut sugar as a natural sweetener because I like the added flavor that it gives to the apple butter, but you could also use plain sugar or a mix of white and brown sugar.
I’ve also included simple instructions for water bath canning the apple butter if you want to put some up to be enjoyed all year long. If you’re new to water bath canning, you can find helpful resources to get you started.
You can also check out this post with more than fifty apple recipes if you have a bounty of apples to enjoy too. Later this week, I’ll also be sharing how I make apple cider in my Instant Pot!
Spiced Apple Butter in the Instant Pot
If you like a little texture to your apple butter (I do), slice your apples nice and thin so they will fall apart more easily and blend together after cooking. The apple butter cooks in two stages– first with the spices, sugar, and a little water under pressure; then it finishes with a simmering session to reduce the liquid and thicken the butter.
I like to use cinnamon and allspice to spice up my apple butter, but you could play with the spice mixture by adding nutmeg, cloves, or even a little ginger.
If you plan on canning the apple butter, get your water boiling and sterilize the jars while the apple butter cooks. You need to add the apple butter to the jars while it’s hot, so you don’t want to have to wait on the water bath to come to a boil after the apple butter is done cooking. (Though, you could reheat the apple butter, it’s best just to have it all ready to go).
Alternatively, if you are going to freeze the apple butter, you can transfer it to jars hot or cold, then let the apple butter cool completely before moving them to the freezer.
I have been canning the apple butter I’m making. Apple butter can be preserved very easily with a water bath canner. I included processing times in the recipe if you want to can your apple butter too. In past years, I have just frozen my apple butter. However this year my freezer is already bursting with our summer garden produce, so I wanted a way to save our apples without taking up any more space in the freezer.
If you are new to water bath canning, it is actually quite simple once you get past the initial hurdle of doing something new. If you want to get started, these are some resources and equipment that I can recommend:
- 21Qt Granite Ware Canning Pot with rack
- Canning accessories
- Quick Start Guide to Water Bath Canning from A Modern Homestead (ebook)
- The Homemade Pantry (this is the book I have used for years for basic canning instructions for fruit, tomatoes, etc)
- Ball Blue Book of Preserving
- Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
- Water Bath Canning 101 from Food in Jars
More Like This ::
- Best Classic Apple Pie
- 50+ Apple Recipes for Eating, Snacking, & Sipping!
- How to Cook A Whole Pumpkin in the Instant Pot & 25 Pumpkin Recipes
- Instant Pot Freezer Soups
- 12 Must-Have Fall Soups for the Instant Pot
Spiced Apple Butter in the Instant Pot
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes under pressure
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 3 pints 1x
- Category: sauce
- Method: pressure cooking
Description
Spiced apple butter easily made in the Instant Pot with just enough sweetness! So delicious spread on bread, as a topping for oatmeal, and so much more. This recipe also cans easily for year-long preserving!
Ingredients
- 5–6 lbs apples, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
Instructions
- Add sliced apples to the Instant Pot until they reach the fill line. Pour in one cup of water, then add the sugar and spices. Stir to incorporate, then place the lid on the Instant Pot. Turn the valve to sealing and set the cook time to 5 minutes on high pressure.
- When the cook time is complete, let the pressure naturally release. Stir the softened apples, then turn the Instant Pot on to Sauté and let the apples simmer until the liquid is reduced and the apple butter is thickened, (about 20-30 minutes).
- Transfer to jars, then refrigerate, freeze, or can*.
Notes
*Apple butter can be preserved by water bath canning. Follow normal canning procedure, and process the jars for 10 minutes.
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[…] to eat all those apples before they spoiled, though, so there has also been a LOT of applesauce and apple butter making, drying the apples, and gifting […]