Pumpkin Apple Butter

You don’t have to tell me I’m low on blogging mojo. I feel its absence acutely. It should bother me, but to be honest, the only thing bothering me right now is the overabundance of Peanut Butter Puffins in my belly. If you thought it wasn’t possible to OD on Puffins, I am here to tell you that you are WRONG.

Mostly, I’m content to lurk read your blog, but it does feel like it’s been a while since I made an actual food contribution to my own food blog.

As a little holiday giftie for my coworkers, I made pumpkin apple butter and gave it to them in tiny jars. Earlier this week, one of said coworkers returned her tiny jar to me, empty and clean.

Me: “Oh, you don’t have to give the jar back to me—it was a gift!”

Her: “I’m not returning it to you. I want a refill.”

I will go ahead and assume she liked it.

I will also take that as a sign that I’m about two months late in posting the recipe, but then again, some would say it’s never too early to get a jump on holiday gifts! If you are so industrious, you could probably go ahead and make this now and freeze it in its gift jars. If you do that, email me your address so that I can come high-five you.

Pumpkin Apple Butter
(adapted from Brittney’s Healthy Homemade Apple Butter)

Ingredients:

• 10 medium apples (such as gala), cored and chopped
• 2 cups apple juice (I juiced mine fresh, but store-bought is fine)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 1 14.5 oz can pumpkin
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Prepare slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray and place chopped apples inside.
2. Add juice through salt, cover and cook 15 hours on low.
3. At the end of the cooking time, the mixture will have darkened and become very fragrant. Get used to this fragrance—it’ll be around a while! Turn off the crockpot and let everything cool for 30 minutes or so.
4. Add pumpkin and maple syrup and use an immersion blender to blend everything smooth. Alternatively, transfer to a blender or food processor to blend smooth.
5. Once cool, store in glass jars, size of your choice, and give it away! Or hoard it for yourself—I wouldn’t blame you.

I found tiny holiday-themed gift bags to fit the tiny apple butter jars, and that was as much gift wrapping as I did. It doesn’t get much simpler than that! I’m not big on effort elaborate gift wrapping, and we don’t really exchange gifts in my office, for that matter, so a small, low-cost gesture was as much as I felt the need to share this last year.

I’ll now walk away from this blog post with my tail between my legs for it being so un-seasonal and late. I could have shared my reviews of a couple new brands of chocolate I happened to try at Valentine’s Day, but in keeping with my general malaise where blogging is concerned, I’ll put it off for a while.

I am nothing if not consistent.

Do you like to give edible gifts? What kind of food do you think makes the best gift?