Homemade Apple Butter (No Added Sugar)
Homemade apple butter is the ultimate fall recipe, filling your kitchen with warm, cozy aromas as it simmers on the stove. Naturally sweetened with medjool dates instead of added sugar, it’s rich, flavorful, and made with just four simple ingredients in about an hour. You can even make it from applesauce if you’re short on time.
This smooth, spiced apple butter is incredibly versatile; spread it on toast, swirl it into yogurt or oatmeal, spoon it over pancakes, or use it to add a burst of apple flavor to baked goods. Once you make it at home, it’s sure to become a favorite fall tradition.
Ingredients
- Apples – I love to use sweet apples (fuji, Pink Lady, etc.), but sometimes mixing things up and adding some less sweet Granny Smith apples is fun too!
- Water – so things don’t burn
- Medjool dates – these add a caramel flavor to the background. I highly recommend you don’t skip adding these! You could also add date syrup instead if you don’t have dates on hand.
- Ground cinnamon – this adds that warm, over the top flavor that you are looking for.
- Ground cloves – intensifies the sweetness from the cinnamon and the dates. Highly recommend you cloves if you have it in your pantry.
How to make apple butter on the stove
Step 1: Peel the apples and chop them into small cubes or thin slices. The smaller the apples, the faster they will break down when cooking.
Step 2 & 3: Add apples, water, pitted dates, cinnamon and cloves to a high sided pan (this will allow the apple butter to simmer later without splattering your stove). Cover and cook over medium heat 15 minutes.
Step 4 & 5: After 15 minutes, remove the lid and stir the apple mixture. Put lid on and continue to cook 15-20 minutes.
Step 6: After 15-20 minutes, remove the lid and blend up the apple mixture with an immersion blender in the pot or with a high speed blender (be careful, this mixture is extremely hot). Blend until smooth.
Step 7: Once smooth, the mixture will cook over low heat, uncovered until all the excess water is evaporated. You will want to stay close by during this process as the apple butter can burn easily if not stirred occasionally.
Note: during this time, the apple butter should be lightly simmering (bubbles forming/popping) but not boiling. This allows the excess water to evaporate off, creating that thick consistency.
Step 8: Once you can run a spoon along the bottom of the pot and the apple butter stays separated at least 2 seconds in the bottom of the pot, it is done cooking (Step #8 below in photo).
Step 9: Turn off the heat and allow the apple butter to fully cool (more water will evaporate during this process).
Carefully transfer to an air tight container and store in the fridge up to 1 week.
4 Ingredient Apple Butter (No Added Sugar)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds apples
- 2 Medjool dates - pitted
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Peel the apples and dice into small, cubes2 pounds apples
- Add the apples, dates, cinnamon, cloves and water to a medium pot over medium heat. Cover2 pounds apples, 2 Medjool dates, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ cup water
- Cook covered for 20 minutes.
- Stir and continue to cook covered for additional 20 minutes turning the heat to medium low.
- Blend with immersion blender (off the heat) or in a high speed blender (carefully, remember this is hot).
- Return to the stove and allow to cook, uncovered over medium low heat, 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Let cool completely on stove if possible. Store covered in glass mason jar in fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Equipment
Recipe Notes
- Add apples, water, pitted dates, cinnamon and cloves to the slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours with the lid on.
- Remove the lid, blend with an immersion blender or a high speed blender.
- Turn the slow cooker to low and cook the blended apple mixture without the lid.
- After 1 hour, turn off the slow cooker and allow it to cool down completely.
- Transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 1 week
Nutrition Information
Ways to use apple butter
Apple butter can be used like any jelly or jam that you love. It can also be used to impart a very rich flavor into your baking (as a replacement for apple sauce).
Some of my favorite ways include:
- On protein pancakes and the ultimate protein waffles
- On yogurt (with homemade granola)
- On sandwiches with almond butter or peanut butter
- Spread on top of protein pumpkin bread or protein banana bread
- Baked in cakes or muffins
Other fun adaptations
- Use pears: Use ½ apples and ½ pears for a flavorful apple pear butter. You will want to peel the pears and cut them similar size to the apples. Cook according to directions above.
- Add different spices: Deepen the spice profile with the use of cardamom (about ½ teaspoon) or ground or fresh ginger (1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh grated ginger).
- Make it gingerbread: Add 1-2 tablespoons of molasses and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of dried ground ginger.
FAQs
What are the best apples to use?
You want an apple that will not get mealy when cooked down, as you want the end product to be thick, smooth and silky. The best apples I have found are:
– Gala (typically inexpensive and easy to find)
– Fuji
– Honeycrisp
– Red delicious
– Macintosh
– Granny Smith (will produce a slightly tart apple butter, I would recommend using another apple from above to offset that slightly tart flavor).
Will the apple butter thicken more as it cools?
Yes! You will notice that as it cools (especially if you leave it in the pot it cooked in to cool down), the apple butter will continue to thicken as the rest of the moisture is able to evaporate off. Once cooled to room temperature, you can store it in the fridge where it still may thicken some.
How to store apple butter
Refrigerator: Store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Freezer: You can also freeze the leftovers into cubes and then store those cubes in a freezer safe bag or container. Freeze for up to 5 months. I love souper cubes as a way to freeze this into 1/2 cup portions.
Defrost in the fridge overnight or defrost in the microwave 30 seconds at a time.
I’m soooo excited to try this. I use date paste for everything these days
and so I literally googled:
Date paste and unsweetened applesauce Apple Butter, 😂, bc i could figure out why it wouldn’t work.
Thanks for sharing this!
Hope this turns out amazing!
Thanks for bringing your Paleo apple butter to FF!Love that deep color the dates gave the apple butter. And I also love the flavor of dates and apples together!
Yummy!
Thanks Sandhya! Love everything you do. This apple butter is perfect on warm sweet potato toast!
Your Apple Butter is perfect to put us in a fall mood. I am sure that the season change where you live now is just beautiful, just like your Apple Butter! Thanks so much for sharing your post with us at Full Plate Thursday! Have a great week and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen
This looks and sounds yummy! I’ve got to try this.
It’s so good! I can’t wait for you to try them! Tag me on instagram when you do! @bites_of_wellness
Ooh, that looks so good – I bet it tastes so rich, but is still good for you!
I can’t wait to make this! I would love to feature it on my blog!
Hmm I love a homemade applesauce, I really need to try this apple butter!
Yum this looks delicious! Have you ever made it with a different type of apple??