Apples .99 A Bag

Last year I had a Stoppe & Shoppe for my Longaberger customers. The homemade invites went out with a picture of a patchwork turkey and visitors received a jar of homemade apple butter for their Thanksgiving table.
'

Making apple butter the old fashioned way was an adventure except that I did use a pot on my stove instead of a kettle over a camp fire. Still it takes 3 hours of standing over the stove and stirring constantly and usually a ruined pot. Since my pots and pans come from the flea market this isn't a big deal but in the interest of time a crock pot recipe sounded like genius.
'

Finding apples on sale (.99 per 3 lb. bag) afforded me the opportunity to try my new crock pot recipe and it is a keeper.
'

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Fill crock pot with thinly sliced Golden Delicious Apples and cook on high about 7 hours. Add 1 lg. cinnamon stick, 1 t. ground ginger, 1/2 t. ground cardamom, 1/2 t. ground nutmeg, 1/4 t. ground mace, small pinch of ground cloves, 2 T. brown sugar, 2 T fresh lemon juice.
'

Continue cooking another 5 hours or so. If the butter is too thick you can add some apple cider, applesauce or even some water. When finished, transfer apple butter to a pot on the stove top and heat thru. Spoon into jelly jars that have been sterilized on the stove top as well.
'

If refrigerated it will keep for up to 1 month ... in the freezer for 6 months. Ours is never around for that long.