sprinklefingers

remember last week? i went on a wild and crazy solo adventure to oregon’s great fruit loop and came home with over 20 lbs of apples. i’ve slowly been putting them to good use - and i’ll admit it: it’s been a lot of work. at least once i contemplated digging a hole in our yard and calling it a root cellar…perfect for storing unused apples and a few too many pounds of onions.

okay, maybe not.

without a root cellar to stow my bounty, i’ve been slicing and dicing and boiling and blanching for a week straight. my latest victory? apple butter. but not just any apple butter, people. not at all!

because i was lucky enough to come across some delicious cherry cider while on my fruit loop tour, i was able to turn my ordinary apple butter into something extraordinary - cherry apple butter. add in a vanilla bean and we’re talking high-fashion cherry vanilla apple butter. haute indeed! [remember, i don’t get out a lot. it doesn’t take much to excite me.]

because i know you want to get all tim gunn in the kitchen, i now introduce to you - new for the 2010 canning season - -

cherry vanilla apple butter

you need:

• 2 cups cherry cider
• 4 cups apple cider
• 1 cup water
• 6.5 lbs cooking apples
• 1 vanilla bean, cut open & scraped
• 2 t orange zest
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 t nutmeg
• scant 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 1/3 - 2 3/4 cups sugar

to make apple butter:

1. pour cherry cider, apple cider and water into a large stockpot.
2. without peeling or coring the apples, cut them into 8 pieces each and add them to the pot filled with cider & water.
3. with the pot over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a low boil and cook the apples gently until they are soft & falling apart. once the apples are soft, remove the pot from the heat and let cool slightly.
4. once cooled a bit, run the entire contents of the pot, a bit at a time, through a food mill. it’s a smart thing here to have the food mill suspended over another cooking pot, that way you don’t dirty another bowl.
5. once the apples are pureed, set the pot of appley goodness over medium-low heat and add the vanilla bean & scrapings, orange zest, nutmeg, lemon juice and sugar.
6. let the mixture come to a boil and them simmer for approximately one hour. stir frequently to prevent burning. after one hour, check for doneness by putting a spoonful of the apple butter on a plate. pop the plate into the freezer for 4 minutes. if the apple butter has set up and has no weepy edges, it’s ready.
7. now that you’ve got a batch of cherry vanilla apple butter on your hands, you need to can it!

the above recipe yields between 8-9 half pint jars of apple butter. follow instructions here for canning. do it! you’ll want to process these jars for 15 minutes. start your timer from the point the water returns to a rolling boil.

this apple butter is good. on toast, on crackers, on a slice of cheese or over vanilla ice cream…delicious. and, i feel like i’d be keeping something from you if i didn’t tell you that one or two of my jars are destined to become apple butter buttercream. i’m working on desserts for an extra special wedding and one of the bride’s requests is apple-something. i can think of nothing better than apple butter buttercream…especially if it’s sandwiched in an oatmeal whoopie pie! yay weddings! work it, apple butter!