Turn your apple harvest into delicious Instant Pot Apple Butter with this easy recipe! No peeling or canning required to make our sweet and tangy apple butter. Makes 4 ½ to 5 cups of apple butter (nutrient info is estimated for 2 Tablespoon serving size)Gluten free, vegan; Free of: soy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs
Course Condiments, Sauces, & Spreads
Cuisine American
Keyword easy apple butter, instant pot apple butter, pressure cooker apple butter
Start by preparing your apples: core the apples and cut into 8ths (or quarters if you have very small apples). You don't need to peel the apples for this recipe.
Place your apples in the pressure cooker with 1/4 cup water and cook on the "Steam" setting (CrockPot Express) or "Manual" setting (Instant Pot) on high for 8 minutes.
Once it's done cooking, turn off the "keep warm" setting, and allow the pressure to release naturally for about 20-30 minutes until the pressure has dissipated completely. Open the valve with a utensil and release any residual pressure before opening. Don't use the quick pressure release method here, or apple puree will get into your steam valve.
While the cooked apples are still hot, use an immersion blender to puree the apples thoroughly until smooth. If you have a non-stick pressure cooker pot, transfer the apples to a different pot to blend them, or the metal immersion blender can damage your non-stick coating.
Once your apples are pureed, stir in the brown sugar, spices, and salt, then divide into freezable jars. You can either can the jars of apple butter or freeze it (make sure to leave room at the top of the jar if you freeze them). We freeze ours.
If you are freezing your apple butter (this is what we do), scoop the apple butter into jars, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top of the jar, allow to cool to room temperature (covering with a light towel to prevent anything from getting into the jars while they cool), and put the lids on and put in the freezer.
When you want to thaw your apple butter, just set it in the fridge to thaw, or place it in a cool water bath to thaw.
Stovetop method:
Everything in the recipe will stay the same, except the amount of water and the cooking directions. You'll add the apples to a large 6-quart cooking pot with 1/2 cup of water instead of 1/4 cup water.
Cover the pot with a lid, simmer over medium low heat for about 25-30 minutes until the apples and their peels are soft. Make sure to leave the lid on the pot so the water doesn't evaporate out of the pot while it's cooking!
Proceed with the rest of the instructions with the immersion blender and spices.
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Notes
*Don't worry about the recipe having so little water added with the apples: the apples release a lot of moisture as they cook, so they will cook perfectly in the pressure cooker with only 1/4 cup water.