Instant Pot Apple Butter
Author:Instant Pot Apple Butter is thick, rich, and full of ultra-concentrated, spiced apple flavour. It's a fall condiment that is perfect for slathering and dolloping on all of your favourite things. Making it in your Instant Pot is super easy and really speeds up the process!
Ingredients
- 6 lb (2.7 kg) apples , peeled, cored, & chopped roughly
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg , or 1 tablespoon pumpkin or apple pie spice in place of the 3 spices)
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) apple juice , apple cider, or water
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar , or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add everything except the vanilla to your Instant Pot. Seal the vent and cook on manual, high pressure for 1 hour.
- Let the pressure naturally release for at least 10 minutes then carefully release what's left.
- Remove the lid and blend the apple mixture thoroughly until smooth with an immersion blender. Be careful because it will be very hot. If you don't have an immersion blender you can transfer it to a regular blender, or mash it really, really thoroughly with a potato masher.
- Now you need to reduce the apple butter to thicken it. You can either turn the Instant Pot to "saute" on the LOW setting, OR you can turn the Instant Pot to "slow cook" on the HIGH setting. Keep the lid off the whole time so evaporation can occur effectively. The quickest method is "saute" but there will be a lot of splattering unless you stand and stir constantly. Doing it this way will take about 30 minutes. Slow cook on high will take 60 to 90 minutes but it won't splatter and you will be able to leave it semi-unsupervised. This is my preferred method.
- When it's reduced enough and ready it will have reduced in volume by about half, you will see visible tracks when stirring it, and it will feel thick when you stir it. See my video below for a visual of this. To test it's ready dollop out a spoonful onto a plate. Leave it to cool for a few minutes then scrape it back up onto the spoon. If you turn the spoon upside down it should stay there and not fall off immediately.
- Turn the Instant Pot off, add the vanilla and stir it through, then spoon the apple butter into clean, dry containers or jars.
NOTES
The amount of apple butter that you end up with will vary depending on how much you reduce it. I reuse my Bonne Maman jam jars and can usually fill 6.
If you can, give your apple butter a few days to age before you enjoy it. A little time allows everything to mellow and meld together and the flavor will be way better.
Store apple butter in a sealed container in the fridge for up to one month or freeze for up to 1 year. It can also be canned.
NUTRITION
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 291kcal | Carbohydrates: 76g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 85mg | Potassium: 420mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 63g | Vitamin A: 187IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 55mg | Iron: 1mg
