This homemade bourbon apple butter is the perfect fall condiment! It's full of sweet and tart apples, lots of cinnamon and spices, your favorite spiced cider, and bourbon!
Apple butter is one of my favorite things to eat during fall; it's the perfect apple filling for these filled donuts or for smearing on top of southern buttermilk biscuits or buttermilk cornbread!
Jump to:
Why This Recipe Works:
Good apple butter comes down to how well it is seasoned and spiced! This recipe uses several ingredients to ensure it is perfectly spiced while still letting the natural apple flavor shine. Spiced Apple Cider provides more apple flavor and a nice spice base. It also helps to tenderize the apples as they cook. Bourbon adds depth to butter (all the alcohol cooks off while the apple butter is simmering), and maple syrup and brown sugar add sweetness.
About this recipe:
- Taste - Apple Cider, a mix of sweet and tart caramelized apples, and a little hint of bourbon!
- Texture - smooth and thick like a thick fruit spread.
- Effort - Easy; this is a one-pot minimal effort recipe.
- Time - about 3-4 hours of cooking 1-2 hours chilling.
Key Ingredients:
Mcintosh Apples: these apples are soft apple that has a wonderful mix of sweet and tart flavors. I love a tart apple, so I love the hint of tartness Mcintosh apples give this butter, but any sweet red apple will do! You can use any softer red apple you like based on your personal flavor performance, and Honeycrisp or red delicious would also be delicious.
Apple Cider: apple cider adds liquid for the apples to cook down while also adding some more delicious apple flavor. My favorite spiced cider is Trader Joes Spiced Cider but use any kind you like, make sure it doesn't have any added sweeteners.
Vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, and allspice: this butter is all about the spices. The balance of these flavors brings out and complements the apples perfectly.
Bourbon: Bourbon is what makes the cream cheese frosting really pop! If you don't like bourbon or want non-alcoholic icing, use any cream cheese icing recipe you like! For the bourbon, I used Woodford Reserve.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make this recipe:
Peel, core, and roughly chop the apples and toss them into a large dutch oven with lemon juice and brown sugar.
Add in the spices followed by bourbon, apple cider, and maple syrup.
Heat on medium-high for 30 minutes.
Lower heat to medium-low and use an emersion blender to puree the mixture.
Let cook, stirring every 20 minutes for 2-3 hours.
Remove from heat and let cool, then add to jars.
Substitutions
- You can omit the bourbon.
- You can switch out the Mcintosh apples for any soft red apple.
Variations
Instead of cooking this on a stovetop, you could also make it in a slow cooker by combining all the ingredients in the cooker and cook for 6 hours. Blend after it's done cooking.
Equipment
- Large high-sided dutch oven.
- Emersion blender or regular blender.
FAQ
This will keep in an air-tight container for up to two weeks.
Looking for more Fall recipes?! Check these out!
Print
Stovetop Bourbon Apple Butter
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: about 3 cups 1x
- Category: Condiment
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
The bourbon apple butter is the perfect fall condiment! It's full of sweet and tart apples, lots of cinnamon and spices, your favorite spiced cider, and bourbon!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Mcintosh apples
- About 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground clove
- ⅛ ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp allspice
- 2 cups spiced apple cider
- ½ cup bourbon
- ¼ cup maple syrup
Instructions
- Peel, core, and roughly chop the apples and toss them into a large dutch oven with lemon juice.
- Add in the brown sugar and spices.
- Followed by bourbon, apple cider, and maple syrup.
- Heat on medium-high for 30 minutes.
- Lower heat to medium-low and use an emersion blender to puree the mixture.
- Let cook, stirring every 20 minutes for 2-3 hours.
- Remove from heat and let cool, then add too jars.
Elizabeth says
This was so perfectly spiced!!!
Catrine says
Hi
You mention lemon juice with the apples but the lemon juice is not in the ingredients list, so easy to forget to buy and also to know how much I should use…
Pate Giltner says
Hi Catrine! Thanks so much for pointing that out! It’s just a little juice, to keep the apples from browning. I’ve updated the recipe, and thanks again!
Linda says
Hi what cider did you use? I’m in UK so probably won’t be able to get the same here but just curious, thanks. Loads of apples on my tree so thought I’d give this a try 🙂
Pate Giltner says
Hi Linda, its a spiced apple cider and from what I understand, its not available in the UK. The closest way to achieve the flavor would to be to heat a high- quality apple juice with mulling spices.
Terri says
This is the best apple butter!