Apple Butter with Essential Oils

Apple butter is certainly a treat at this time of year! Apple butter, essentially, is a spiced applesauce that is cooked down until it is thick. It’s great as a spread on bread, french toast, pancakes, or crackers, as a glaze on pork or chicken, as a topping for vanilla ice cream, and combined with brie, cottage cheese, vanilla yogurt, or oatmeal. The possibilities are endless!

Apple Butter with Essential Oils

Servings: Yield = roughly 1 pint | Time: 15–60 minutes active; 12–14 hours inactive | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (roughly 6 large apples or 10–12 small apples)
• 1 cup organic apple juice (no sugar added)
• 1/4 cup sugar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 toothpick cinnamon essential oil
• 1 toothpick clove essential oil

Instructions:

1. Put everything except the essential oils in the slow cooker, and cook for 10 hours on the low setting (cooking overnight works well).
2. After 10 hours of cooking, blend the apple mixture in a blender or with an immersion blender within the slow cooker. Cook for another 2 hours with the lid slightly ajar so steam can exit.
3. Check for doneness by putting a spoonful on a plate. Wait a minute or two. If a ring of liquid appears around your spoonful of apple butter, then it needs to continue cooking.
4. Continue cooking in the slow cooker, checking on it every 10 minutes and more frequently the thicker it gets.
5. If you want the apple butter to be done faster, you can transfer it to a saucepan and cook it over medium heat. Use a lid to contain the splatters, and lift the lid every couple minutes to let the steam escape, or prop the lid up with a chopstick. Remove from heat to stir every so often and check for doneness. When it stops splattering, it should be really close to being done.
6. Once the apple butter has thickened, remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Dip the toothpicks in the essential oils, and stir into the apple butter.
7. Pour the apple butter into a pint-size jar and refrigerate.