Delicious, sweet, no-sugar apple butter. No sweeteners of any kind needed – just apples and spices.
Why No Sugar Apple Butter Works
The recipe below calls for Honeycrisp apples, which are a naturally sweet apple variety. You could use other apples with a similar flavor profile (Fuji, Golden Delicious, Gala, or Ambrosia) as an alternative. But you do want an apple that falls on the sweeter end of the spectrum.
You also want an apple that breaks down easily – otherwise, you’re going to need to blend up the apples to turn them into apple butter, and then continue cooking them. This is doable, but very annoying.
The key to this apple butter is to leave it alone. It takes a bit of time to cook – but very little active time. You basically chop up the apples and then ignore them while they slowly cook down over the course of 3-4 hours. You can stir about once every hour, but it’s a very flexible process.
As the apples cook and break down, the sugar inside the apples develops a stronger, caramel-like flavor due to the slow cooking. Commercial apple butters tend to skip the process of cooking the apples very slowly and letting the sugars naturally intensify. Instead, they create the flavor with added sugar. But you don’t actually need the additional sugar! It’s already there – you just need to help bring out the flavor. That’s what this slow cooking process does.
Alternative Cooking Process
There is another way to get similar results, but it does make a bit of a mess. I’ve included a note on how to do this in the notes section below the recipe. Basically, the alternative is to brown the apples to bring out the caramel sugar flavor, then simmer them just long enough to break them down. It takes about a quarter of the time, but it is more labor intensive and requires more cleanup (browning apples can make a mess of your saucepan).
If You’re a Food Nerd
I always thought that what the sugar was doing here was essentially caramelizing. And I might sometimes still talk about it that way. But in fact, the deeper caramel-like sugar flavor that develops in the apple is a result of the Maillard reaction. Caramelization requires a much higher temperature (around 320F) that we can’t reach with the apple-water mixture. The Maillard reaction can occur at or below boiling point.
Afternoon Snacks
My daughter’s favorite after-school snack is toast with butter and apple butter. I usually give her a scrambled egg to go alongside for some protein, or some apple slices with nut butter. But this apple butter on some toast has been her regular request for going on 8 months now.
(If you also have a toast-fan, you could also try ricotta with strawberry jam as a topping with a bit more protein. This suggestion has been rejected without a second thought by my sweet girl who wants one snack and one snack only. What can I say? I’m the same way. I’d eat the same thing every night if I could get away with it.)
Our apple butter obsession all started with a fall gift – a friend gave us some truly delicious apple butter at the peak of apple season. My daughter immediately fell in love with it. But when I took the dreaded look at the ingredients, it was as bad as I had expected. The number 1 ingredient was, as with most jams, sugar.
After trying the apple butter, I was surprised to find that it really didn’t taste all that different from the apple sauce I’d been making for our kids for a while now. I wondered what would happen if I just cooked down the apple sauce a bit longer – and voila! It turned out great. And now we have this no sugar apple butter recipe.
Uses
As you may have guessed by this point, our primary use for this is as a spread on toast.
But it is also delicious alone. It’s like a very thick apple sauce (so I serve maybe 1/4 cup at a time). Or as a topping on Greek yogurt. Or warmed up on vanilla ice cream. Or spooned over a Dutch baby and topped with some whipped cream. Or on crepes. Waffles. Pancakes. Need I go on?
Storage
Because there is no added sugar, this apple butter will not keep as long as commercial varieties. This is a key reasons they add sugar in the first place.
This apple butter will keep for about 3 weeks in the refrigerator if you store it properly, or up to a year in the freezer. To store it properly, right after I make the apple butter (while it’s still warm), I put it into a freshly cleaned mason jar and put the lid on. And 3 weeks is actually about how long it takes us to go through 1 cup of apple butter (the amount the recipe below yields). Destiny.
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All Apple Butter (no sugar)
I use Honeycrisp apples for this apple butter because they’re sweet, they break down easily, and they’re readily available in most grocery stores. You can replace them with other apples, but be thoughtful about what you pick. You will not get good results with Granny Smith apples, for example – they’re not sweet enough. Believe me, I’ve tried it.
Good alternative options to Honeycrisp would be Fuji, Golden Delicious, Gala, or Ambrosia.
This recipe takes about 3-4 hours to produce good apple butter. There is a faster way that is more of a pain in the bum – see the notes down below the recipe.
- Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Ingredients
4 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and roughly chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Optional: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Wash and peel the apples.
Doesn’t have to be perfect, but don’t leave any big pieces of peel.
2. Chop the apples.
You want about 1/2 inch cubes. Again, doesn’t need to be exact. The apples will have plenty of time to cook.
3. Bring apples and water to a boil.
Place the apples in a saucepan. Fill with water until the apples are just covered with water. It’s okay if little bits poke out (apples float, so no way to avoid this).
Bring to a a boil.
4. Let them cook for 3-4 hours.
Reduce the heat and let the apple and water mixture simmer for 3-4 hours. Check on them and give them a stir about every 1 hour to make sure they are starting to break down. They will naturally fall apart as you stir them after an hour or two.
Apples after 5 minutes:
Apples after 2 hours:
Apples after 3-4 hours:
5. Stir in the spices.
After about 3-4 hours, the apple butter will start taking on a dark brown hue and will be very reduced. Once are nearly at the consistency you want for the apple butter (a jamlike consistency), stir in the spices:
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- Optional: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Take your time stirring to make sure they’re mixed in well. Let it cook 1 more minute, then take the apple butter off the heat.
6. Enjoy!
Spread it on toast, use it as a topping for yogurt, etc.
If you place it while warm into a sterile jar for storage and top immediately, it will keep for up to 3 weeks. You can also freeze some if you made more than you can use in that time.
Notes
There is a much faster way to produce similar results, but it will be a pain in the bum to clean your pan afterward, and it requires more attention. I’ll mention it here in case you are the sort who prefers this approach for whatever reason. You put the chopped apples in a pan with no water. Then you let them sit over the heat until they start to brown. It will take some time. You will need to watch them. Once they brown on the bottom, stir and then let them brown again. Keep doing this for about 20 minutes, or until the apples start to look browned and smell wonderful. They should look like this: 
Then add some water and bring to a simmer. Let the apples cook until they soften. This process takes about 45 minutes.
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: stovetop
