How to Make and Can Your Own Apple and Pumpkin Butter

My mom has canned things from apple butter, pumpkin butter, tomatoes, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, red beets, chow chow, pears, peaches, and more. I've watched her do it year after year growing up, but I never actually learned how to do it. The fall season is when my mom would can her apple and pumpkin butter...so I asked if she would teach me how to do it. I don't want to forget the things I grew up with. I would love to pass this on to my kids.

We started with the apples first...we kind of went back and forth between the apple & pumpkin butter...but I tried to organize the pictures best I could to make it easier for those of you trying to do this for your first time. =) 

 What you will need is a Ball Utensil Set for Preserving. Of course you'll need Ball jars. You can use any size jar you want. I used twenty-four 4 oz. jelly jars, four half pint (8 oz.) jelly jars, & fifteen 1 pint (16 oz.) jars (all jars were regular mouth, not wide mouth jars).

 You'll also want to get a food mill. This one is plastic...I actually suggest getting a metal one. The plastic isn't as durable as the metal ones. My mom used to use an antique food mill & it started rusting so she wasn't able to use it anymore.

 You'll want a box apples. My mom uses 'seconds' they are imperfect apples which means they are a bit cheaper. They all taste the same. My mom recommends using McIntosh, Winesap, Granny Smith, etc (cooking/baking apples). We used McIntosh. You're not to use 'eating apples' as in: Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, etc. they don't mash well. You want to make sure you rinse off the apples & take off all the stickers. =)

 You cut up the apples into slices. No need to core them.

 Add a 1/4 cup of water to the pot.

 Cook covered on medium until apples are mushy (you'll understand when you see the pictures below).

 Just started cooking... definitely not ready yet.

 You want to stir them occasionally. They are getting there!

 Now this is perfect....and ready for mashing.

 Pour some of the cooked apples into your food mill...making sure there is a pan of some kind to catch the mashed apples. As you use your food mill you will notice that there will be 'left overs' stuck in the food mill that cannot be used...this you will have to throw out (put in your garden or compost pile). You'll refill your food mill many times to mash all the apples.

Basically at this point you've made your own applesauce.

Out of one box of apples we got 3 batches of applesauce...we used 2 batches to make into apple butter.

I'm going to go on a bunny trail here and quickly show you what to do with your applesauce.

Get freezer safe quart sized bags. I wrote the date on the bag. The circled 's' stands for added sugar.

Depending on what kind of apples you use your applesauce may be a bit tart, to curve the tartness you can add sugar. 

I split the batch in half...half was bagged with no sugar and the other half got a 1/4 cup of sugar.

Stick them in the freezer & you're good to go.

We had 2 batches of apple sauce left over to make into apple butter.

Here is the recipe...from my mom's Schwenkfelder cookbook:

Apple Butter

Ingredients

16 cups applesauce

6 cups sugar

1 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar)

3 teaspoons cloves

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in roast pan. Cook in oven @ 325 degrees for approximately 3 hours (this depends on how thick you want your apple butter to be). Stir every 1/2 hour.

It's baking away...we'll come back later....now onward to pumpkin butter.  

These are called Fairytale Pumpkins. They are really cool for decoration in the fall, but they can also be used for eating...which is great....no waste. =) You can also use a neck pumpkin. The only thing with the neck pumpkin is if you use this for you pumpkin pie it doesn't get a rich orange color it's more of a peachy color...if the color doesn't bother you then by all means try the neck pumpkin. =)

Make sure you wash off your pumpkins.

Cut each pumpkin into slices. We had 2 pumpkins.

 We just used the ridges as guides.

 Scoop out all the 'guts' of the pumpkin into a separate dish and put off to the side.

 You're going to want a baking pan with high sides because when you bake the pumpkin a lot of water bakes out of it. You can pile it onto the pan just as shown in this picture.

 You're going to bake these covered. So you'll have to make a teepee out of aluminum foil. 

Bake covered at 400 degrees for 1 1/2-2 hours until soft. 

They're baked...and ready for the next steps.

It's easier to work with while warm...you may want to wait just a little bit before trying to scrape the pumpkin off the shell as to not burn your fingers. 

NOTE: THESE NEXT 2 STEPS ARE ONLY IF YOU'RE SAVING SOME PUMPKIN TO USE FOR BAKING. Put a cheesecloth/tea towel in strainer. Scoop the pumpkin into the tea towel and squeeze the excess water out. 

Be sure to get as much water out as possible. Put the drained pumpkin into the blender to puree. Store in freezer safe containers. We used about 1/2 of one pumpkin to get five 22 oz. (2.75 cups) containers of pumpkin puree to use for baking.

Just to clarify you do NOT need to drain the pumpkin if you're only using it to make into pumpkin butter. You still need to puree the pumpkin in the blender before mixing in ingredients.

 Mixing in the ingredients! I'm so excited!!! =)

Pumpkin Butter

Ingredients

16 cups pumpkin puree

3 cups sugar

1 cup vinegar

2 teaspoon cloves

4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in roasting pan. Bake at 325 degrees in oven approximately 3 hours (depends on how thick you want your pumpkin butter). Stir every ½ hour .

To can BOTH your apple & pumpkin butter you'll want to heat your lids in a pan with just enough water covering the lids. The water doesn't need to be boiling just needs to be hot. This will help your sealing process. If you buy the Ball Utensil Set it comes with a magnet on a stick so you don't have to burn your fingers trying to get the lids out of the hot water. It's pretty helpful. 

Take your jars one by one and fill them with the funnel leaving about a 1/2 inch headspace from the top of the jar. This is where it's helpful to have 2 people...you want to work with the apple & pumpkin while it's HOT.

I'm trying my hand at filling the jars & making sure there is enough headspace.

Place the lids on the filled jars and tighten (as tight as you can get it) the bands onto the jar.

I love the little jelly jars; they are so cute!!

After the lids and bands are tightly secured place all jars on and under some towels...the key is they need to stay warm and at this point they need to be left alone until you hear them popping (sealing)!! I never knew it would be so exciting to hear them pop, but it is because it means you were a successful canner!! Yeah!! =)

 Here are the fruits of my (& my mom's) labor! How cool...these could be some great Christmas presents! Just saying. =P

Can you tell which one is pumpkin & which one is apple?

 Now, I'm going through and picking out the pumpkin seeds to roast.

 Rinse all those pumpkin juices off.

 Spray thoroughly with butter cooking spray...or you can use olive oil.

 Sprinkle Pampered Chef, Asian Seasoning Mix & Salt to your liking. Make sure you mix your seeds so every seed has butter/oil, seasoning, & salt on them.

 You can use whatever seasonings you want...but I LOVE the Asian Seasoning Mix. Make sure your seed are laying in one layer on the pan...try not to have seeds overlapping each other.

Bake at 325 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes, for 30 minutes until golden brown. Store in an airtight container. =)

 All in a days work! It literally took all day to do this, but it was neat to learn & I'm glad I did it. It's so rewarding in the end!