Recipes from the Farmer's Daughter, April McGregor, 2011

*Note: if your apples are tart, you may want to add ¼ to ½ cup of honey or sugar*
Makes about 5 half pints

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 cups apple juice (or you can sub 1 cup of orange juice for 1 cup of the apple juice)
6 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods, cracked
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds
About 10-12 medium apples, preferably sweet and soft fleshed varieties, peeled, cored, and quartered (if you have a food mill, you can skip the peeling and coring)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the water, apple juice, orange juice, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and fennel. Bring to a boil and reduce liquid by half.
Strain the liquid to remove the spices.

In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the apples with the spiced liquid. Simmer
for about 20 minutes until the apples are falling apart tender. Remove the apples from heat, add vanilla, and let cool. Process in a food processor or food mill to desired consistency. Ladle into sterilized jars and top with two-piece lids. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Oven-Roasted Apple Butter: Makes about 4 half pints
To turn your applesauce into apple butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To your applesauce mixture, add ½ cup brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon each ground cloves and ground ginger. Bake the
apple puree, stirring occasionally, for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, or until very thick and deeply browned.
Ladle the apple butter into sterilized jars, top with two piece lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.