Ginger Apple Butter

A couple of weekends ago I had a festival of cooking. I made the Feijoada for my Daring Cooks, I made soup, I made muffins and for the first time I made jam. My Mum gave me tonnes of apples of her tree and I was looking for new and exciting things to do with them rather than making more apple compote. I was also looking for a way to preserve them without freezing as I have very limited freezer space and my Mum gave me a recipe for apple butter.

The original recipe is spiced apple butter and calls for ground all spice, ground cloves and ground cinnamon but I went for the ginger variation and it was lovely. It could do with a little more ginger for me but it does have that nice hint of ginger in the background.

Ginger Apple Butter
(Makes 8 and a bit jars)

2.75kg apples
1.2l water
1.2l sweet cider
3 tsp ground ginger
sugar

Wash the apples thoroughly and remove the stalks and bruised parts. Chop the fruit roughly and put into a pan with the water and cider, bring to the boil. Cover and simmer until the apples are soft and pulpy, stirring frequently.

Rub the apple pulp through a fine nylon sieve then weigh it and return to the pan. Allow 350g sugar for each 450g apple pulp and add to the pan with the ginger.

Bring gently to the boil stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved. Continue boiling stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens and there is no extra liquid in the pan and it looks jam like in consistency. You will probably need to stir and keep more of an eye on the mixture during the last 15 mins or so to stop it from burning.

Put the apple butter into hot clean jars and cover immediately.

Fruit butters will keep for 3-6 months.