9.17.2013

cooking with toddlers: pumpkin spice apple butter

It's still miserably hot down here in South Florida and so I just fall into the all pumpkin everything trend and pretend I'm wearing some cute, fuzzy sweater and my shoes are crunching on red and orange fallen leaves as I walk. For some reason pumpkin season has officially kicked off and it took me two grocery stores and one super sweet employee willing to check the incoming truckload to find any pumpkin. But Ethan and I whipped up a batch of this pumpkin spice apple butter and it was all so very worth it.

This is an awesome recipe to make with little helpers. It's easy and if they can get past the six-seven hour wait time to start sampling, it'll be worth every second of cook time. Here's what you need:

Six apples (peeled and chopped), one can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix), 1/3c brown sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4c all-natural no sugar added apple juice.

I always prep the ingredients and place them into several small bowls, cups and containers. This always makes the easy job seem more complex and Ethan feels every step is equally as important. He loves being able to "cook" by pouring all of the different ingredients himself. Littler containers, cups and bowls makes this easier for him.

Because this recipe is super easy, all you have to do is dump everything into the crockpot.

And, of course, stir.

I gave it a couple final stirs before turning the crockpot on just to make sure the apples are completely covered and everything is evenly mixed. From there, you just set this to cook for anywhere between six and eight hours and let the amazing pumpkin, apple and spice aromas fill your home.

After seven hours, I poured the mixture into a blender and blended it for a minute or two to ensure there were no big chunks left. If you'd rather it stays chunkier, there's no need for a blender and you can just mash up the remaining apple pieces with the back of a wooden spoon.

We have been loving this today. Ethan had some pumpkin apple butter mixed into his yogurt with chia seeds at breakfast, I had some slathered on a piece of bread and my husband had a pumpkin apple butter sandwich for lunch today. Totally can't get enough and, as usual, Ethan is pretty proud of his hard work in the kitchen!

3 comments:

  1. Love it! Thank you for this recipe! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, that looks delicious. My Husband loves apple butter I'll have to try this.

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  3. Looks delicious! New follower from the hump day hop! I have a hop going on as well today, love for you to check it out! :)

    ReplyDelete

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