Treacle Toffee Apple Butter

One of the most popular recipes I have made on my little blog is for apple butter made in the slow cooker.
Apple Butter, which is a common condiment in the United States, isn’t really well known over here in the UK.
It’s really stewed apples, concentrated right down to pack in as much flavor as possible. This is then an ideal consistency for spreading onto breads, I’ve even used it in a pumpkin pie.

With even more apples on our trees, I had loads left over and needed to do something with them. I decided to make more apple butter, but didn’t have any dark brown sugar.
I did have Demerara in the cupboard and treacle and wondered if using both would add up to the same thing.
We set about peeling a ton of apples the other Sunday and used 3kg for the apple butter and stewed the rest down to make crumbles and other goodies which I shall no doubt bring you in the future.
I followed the same recipe as I had used for the previous apple butter  substituting the dark brown sugar with the Demerara and a couple of teaspoons of treacle. If you can't get treacle where you are unsulphured molasses would work equally as well.

I set the slow cooker to go for 12 hours (getting up through the night to check it) and the result was a much darker mass of stewed apples ready to be blended down into apple butter.

But the taste of it was very, very different. The treacle flavor seemed to give a smokey, pleasant burnt taste, much like treacle toffee. It was deeply intense, very flavourful and really rather nice.
So by accident I have come up with a variation of apple butter, a treacle toffee apple butter which is warming and spicy, quite bonfirey if that makes sense.
Give this a go if you still have spare apples to use up.
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Treacle Toffee Apple Butterby Stuart Vettese November-14-2016Apple butter made in a slow-cooker with added treacleIngredients

• 3 Kilograms apples (any variety)
• 225 grams granulated sugar
• 200 grams demerara sugar
• 3 generous teaspoons of treacle 
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or paste

InstructionsPeel, core and chop the apples. Place in the bowl of the slow cooker. Add the sugars, treacle, spices and salt and mix through. Cook on low for 9 hours. The apples will reduce and become darker . Lift the lid slightly off the cooker to let moisture escape and continue to cook on low for another 3 hours. After the three hours, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, stirring this through. Using a stick-blender puree the apple butter. Place in jars and allow to cool fully before placing on lids. It will thicken slightly as it cools.DetailsPrep time: 1 hour Cook time: 12 hour Total time: 13 hour Yield: 2 large jars

I'm entering this recipe into this month's slow cooked challenge hosted by Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen and Lucy Baking Queen 74.