Apple Butter, an Autumnal Preview

Autumn...it's still a little ways off, I know, but that doesn't mean I can't indulge in a little bit of Fall in August, does it? I think not! There's just something about Autumn that warms the heart. I guess that's why I love it so much. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the months of September, October, November, and December comprise Grand Tetrarchy of Cooking, what with Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the flavors of pumpkin, spices, cranberries, cinnamon, cider, and, of course, apples. Thus it is with great joy, and a watering mouth, that I present you with...Baked Apple Butter (on toasted brioche anisée)!

As much as I love apples and apple butter, this is only the second time I'm ever made it. The last time was a year or two ago, when I used the recipe from the Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving. My main gripe with that recipe, though, is that it's all done on the stove, and you have to stir almost constantly while it cooked, lest it burn. It took almost an hour to cook down! My arms fell off...both of 'em! And if your stopped stirring, you were brought back to attention with a searing hot splatter of apple butter to the face. If that wasn't enough you were also instructed to use a food mill to puree the apples and remove the skins, thus took another hour. Then there was the matter of the spices, the USDA's recipe instructs you use a mouth-numbing 1 tbsp of ground cloves. Now, I like my apple butter spicy, but this was just ridiculous!

For these reasons, I went about searching for a similar, though easier, method of making apple butter, and one that used less sugar, too. I wanted an apple butter that was easy, tasty, and erring on the healthier side. And I think I found it.

I consulted many a recipe and combined the elements from each I liked, not the least of which is the fact that it's baked, so you don't have to worry about it scorching, and you only have to give 'er a stir every half-hour.

Baked Apple Butter

4 large Granny Smith apples
4 large Breaburn apples
1 cup unsweetened Apple Juice
1 cup Brown Sugar (or other sweetener)
2 (generous) tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/2 (generous) tsp. ground Cloves
1/4 (generous) tsp. ground Allspice
The ground up seeds of one large Green Cardamom Pod
Generous pinch of Salt

Core and cut the apples into chunks, but leave the skin on. Put apples and apple juice into a large sauce pan and boil over medium heat for 30 minutes.

Set oven to 275°F.

Using a stick blender, blend the apples and skins until smooth. You can also use a food processor or blender, working in batches.

Add the sugar , cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom and salt. Stir to mix well. Pour into a 13x9 inch baking dish, and bake for 3 hours, stirring every half-hour, or until the butter reaches the consistency you like.

Notes:

- Feel free to use any kind apples you like, in this recipe, it's plenty flexible. I just happened to like the looks of the Granny Smiths and Braeburns today.

- If you can get apple cider, that would work great too. Cider is just yet to make an appearance around here, as yet.

- You can use white sugar, brown sugar, honey, or a sugar substitute. Just aim for a cup's worth. I didn't have enough brown sugar, so I topped it off with the Baker's Blend sugar substitute.

- Don't feel that you must use the cardamom, I know it can be hard to find, for some. I just love the warm, floral taste of the stuff so much...how could I not add it in? ^_^

- Next time, I'll probably add in some lime juice to lend a bit of acidity to the butter, to brighten it up a tad.

- This recipe is not meant to be processed and "put up," so be sure to keep it refrigerated.

Curiouser and curiouser: Cantaloupe Butter

I am not sure why, but for the past couple of days I have been consumed with the desire to make jam, or jelly, or some sort of preserves. Oh sure, there are recipes for strawberry, raspberry, and *blank*berry jams a plenty, but I wanted to try something new, something I would never have thought of on my own. After having made (and loved) the strawberry preserves with black pepper and balsamic vingar posted by Leah at SpicySaltySweet, I've only experienced an even greater desire to try preserves that are, shall we say, a bit beyond the standard fare. Wonderful though a basic blackberry jam is, sometimes you just gotta try something a little new and unexpected.

Whilst scouring the tubes for an interesting recipe, I happened upon a plain looking and unassuming collection of jam recipes, called simply Jam Recipes. "Well, at least it's concise," I thought, as I started to explore what they had to offer. Recipes included various apricot jams, marmalades (including a carrot marmalade? I'm going to have to try that out sometime.), banana jam, and apple jams infused with flavors from ginger to thyme (ooh, that's another one for the books), and many more interesting recipes, many of which hail from our friends in the UK. The one recipe that really caught my eye, though, was the cantaloupe butter.

The recipe is simple and consists of a mere four ingredients: Cantaloupe, Sugar, Lemon juice (or in my case, lime juice), and Cinnamon. The butter certainly tastes of cantaloupe, but also has a surprising caramelized pumpkininess to it. It's actually quite autumnal in flavor. Excitingly unexpected. Did I mention that it also wonderfully compliments my Murcia al Vino cheese? Also excitingly unexpected! ^_^

I had thought about making and preserving more butter, but was unsure of cantaloupe's preservability. Thus I consulted my Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving, and as it turns out cantaloupe is not acidic enough to safely preserve without the use of a pressure canner, a piece of equipment I don't really want to invest in. While the average cantaloupe has a pH of 6.17 - 7.13, the USDA does not recommend the use of hot water canning for foods with a pH greater than 4.6 (carrots, pumpkin, melon, okra, corn, asparagus, etc), unless you're pickling them in a brine solution. Therefor, my cantaloupe butter gets to live in the fridge. ^_^

Cantaloupe Butter

1 Cantaloupe Melon
Sugar
Lemon juice
Cinnamon

1. Remove the rind and the seeds from the melon, then dice the fruit.

2. Place in a pan with enough water to cover the bottom and prevent burning (about 1/4 cup), and cook until the melon is soft and pulpy.

3. Pass the cooked mix through a sieve or, like me, just purée it with a stick blender until smooth.

4. For every 2 cups of purée, add:
-1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
-1 cup of sugar

5. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce heat to low, stirring frequently to make sure the sugar is dissolved and the mix does not burn.

6. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the mix sets when tested. It took me about 40 minutes until I liked the consistency.

7. Pour into clean jars and let cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.

When I finished, I ended up with a bit less than a pint of cantaloupe butter, so I suppose you can figure about one pint per large cantaloupe.

Bemused By Butter

I was making my way through a Wal-Mart the other day grabbing a few grocery items at a frenetic pace, mostly out of a deep desire to get out of that mullet convention as fast as possible, when I glanced at the dairy section. It was there that I spied something I had never seen in the blue-vested depths of Wal-Mart, Challenger Unsalted Butter, a go-to necessity in the kitchen, no? The low price struck me as odd, despite the fact I was--very annoyingly--in Wal-Mart, but I grabbed a box anyway. When I got home I soon found out why Wal-Mart even had the stuff, much less at such a low cost...

Seems Wally's World must get the rejected and diverted butter, deemed unsuitable for more better markets. ^_^; Granted, it is the same thing I'd find at Harmon's or Target...I just found this amusing.