Chai Apple Butter

Sometimes in cooking (and in life) it’s about finding that perfect compliment. You know what I’m talking about right? The yin to your yang. The homemade applesauce to go with grandma’s pancakes.  Or in today’s case, the perfect Homemade Chai Apple Butter to go on your cornbread.

You may have noticed we are big apple fans. From Instant Pot Applesauce to Apple Brie Crostini, we love it! It’s apparently a family thing. So continuing along that theme today we delve into the delicious world of apple butter.

Apple butter is different from applesauce in that you slow cook the apples with cider until they start to caramelize and turn a delicious golden brown color. So I think the usual end result is a flavor that is a little more intense, but both can be prepared in numerous ways so it’s really a matter of process.  You can work both to get your own desired taste.

Since we recently made Chai Concentrate we decided we would try making Chai Apple Butter. Why not, right? One of the things we love about cooking is that there are no absolute rules and experimentation is the best way to discover new things and find recipes that you really enjoy.

We started making batches of this back in the Fall when we had an abundance of apples and our kids loved helping out with the process and loved the resulting apple aroma that filled our house. Not to mention, taste testing!

This apple butter freezes really well.  We have been grabbing small containers out of the freezer, defrosting, and enjoying on everything from pancakes, cornbread, muffins, to yogurt (topped with the apple butter and toasted pecans!). Try out any of these ideas or feel free to try out your own! Let us know in the comments below what you come up with.

On to the recipe, we hope you enjoy!

Chai Apple Butter

Print Rate

Ingredients

• 1 c . cider
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 small chunks of fresh ginger
• 1 small chunk of fresh turmeric
• 7 cardamom pods
• 2 star anise
• 10 cloves
• 5 black pepper corns
• 1/2 tsp . nutmeg
• 20-24 apples , peeled, cored, and sliced
• 2 tsp . vanilla
• 1 tsp . cinnamon
• 2 tsp . turmeric
• 1/4 c . brown sugar

Instructions

• Add cinnamon stick through nutmeg to cider in a small pan.
• Bring to a boil.
• Cover, turn off heat, and let sit for 20 minutes.
• Strain through a small sieve.
• Add apples with remaining ingredients to crock pot/slow cooker.
• Cook for 6-8 hours on high, stirring every half an hour after 5 hours until desired consistency.