The last few moments of September are here, soon it will just be a shadow passed and the brightness of a new month will be upon us. 

Has September been good to you, friends?

Here, September has shown us some beautiful highs and it has shown us some devastating lows. Through all the smiles and through all the tears, God has reigned and God has been good.  I hope you have had the opportunity to see (and more so, be a part of) His faithfulness this month.

I always have at least two things I look forward to as September approaches every year -the beginning of autumn and the abundance of apples.

Year after year, I receive a laundry basket full of fresh apples from my parent’s little set of apple trees. Year after year, I have to make quick decisions as to what I will do with all the said apples. Year after year, I peel until my fingers are crooked and sore. Year after year, I am thankful for the jars of delicious apple products I will have throughout the long winter months. 

This year, I decided my whole batch of apples would be used to make apple butter. 

You would think that I would have a solid recipe down after all of these years. But, no. It goes without saying that – year after year, I will scour Pinterest and all my recipe books for various apple recipes. Never using the same one twice. 

After looking at all the recipes – I always end up (loosely) following one…making most of it up as I go. 

So, here is my Make it Monday – Homemade Crockpot Apple Butter.

Here is a recipe that I stuck to pretty well with my last batch of apple butter.  

First, I had to peel, wash and dice all my apples.

I wanted to make mention here that I saw this really cool idea on how to quickly peel apples. 

   
This is how that whole “cool idea” ended for me…back to old fashioned and hand crippling peeling.
  
After I had my apples peeled, washed and cut, I placed them in my slow cooker.

  
Then I sprinkled on some – cinnamon (2 tsp.), brown sugar (3/4 cup), raw cane sugar (1/4 cup), nutmeg (1 tsp.) and clove (1/2 tsp.). 

 
I left it to cook in my crockpot on low for about 11-12 hours, stirring occasionally.

The consistency of my apples did not require for me to use an immersion blender, but I have read that sometimes one is needed before moving onto the last step of canning them.

Here are some of my lovely jars of apple butter…ready to be placed in our deep freeze for later enjoyment (I decided to freeze them instead of drag out all my canning supplies and can them).

 
What are you making today on this Make it Monday? Please, share!