Today I'll be canning apple pie filling and making apple butter. I love to have apple pie filling on hand. If you get stuck and wonder what in the world you could fix for a sick neighbor or what will you serve someone who is dropping by, having this on hand makes the world go round a whole lot easier. I make my own pie crusts but if you keep a few crusts in the freezer all you have to do is pull one out, fill it with the apple pie filling, put a crumb crust on top and bake it for a few and your guests or your neighbor will think you've slaved all day. It's actually good too!!!
So I'm off to the salt mines. I'll talk to you all later.
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I started off this morning working on apple pie filling and ended up with 7 quarts of delicious filling. I was having a hard time keeping my spoon out of the good stuff but you know the rules, keep it clean, clean, clean. TeeHee - so I sneaked a spoonful and washed the spoon really good!! There ARE ways around these things you know. Hahahaha!!! I also got 3 quarts of apple juice. Now don't get me wrong here-not like your store bought apple juice but tasty nonetheless. When I start with the apples I always wash them first, of course. Then I peel, core and slice them and put them in either lemon juice or ascorbic acid and water so they don't turn brown while I'm finishing peeling. Then I transfer the slices to a pan of sugar water (you could use honey). I only put just enough water in to barely begin to cover the apples. Then while I'm heating that up to the boiling point, I will, in another pan, be making the actual thickener/syrup for the apple pie slices. Then when that is heated up, thickened and bubbly I dip out of the sugar water the hot apple slices which are just now beginning to soften a little and put them in the thickened syrup. What I have left in the pan is basically apple water. It's perfectly clean. I check to see how sweet it is and see if it could use a little more sugar or honey and after the apple pie filling has been canned - I put the apple juice/water into quart jars and can them too. The juice is actually very tasty all on its own and we also enjoy it mixed with other fruit juices and as a sweetener poured over fresh fruit dishes. I ended up with 3 quarts.
I also took some of the cores and apple peelings and stuffed a jar 3/4 full of them, poured some sugar water over them to the tune of 1 Tbs. per cup of water until covered, then capped the jar off with a coffee filter and a rubber band and put it in a warm dark spot for a couple weeks. Yep, I'm trying my hand at apple cider vinegar. Gosh, I hope it works. I'll let you know how it goes as long as you promise not to make fun if it turns out awful!!! I still have a big bowl of apple cores and peelings that I could actually make jelly out of but I'm loaded with jellies and jams so the horses get a treat this evening.