Apple butter is one of fall’s special ingredients, having genesis as far back as the Early Middle Ages.
It is speculated to have originated from the Limburg province of the United kingdom of the Netherlands (present day Netherlands and Belgium), and also in the Rhineland area of Western Germany when the first monasteries with apple orchards began to appear.
It found its way into different cultures and regions around the world through different means and at different historical times (through European settles of colonial America in the United States for example), and today, it is employed for a wide variety of uses in our daily culinary episodes.
Below, we take a look at some of the finest uses of apple butter in the kitchen. Some are quite obvious, some aren’t.
Uses for Apple butter
- Use apple butter as a spread on toasts or other baked articles such as English muffins, biscuits, and waffles.
- Use apple butter as a stand alone filling when baking rolls or pies.
- Use apple butter as a topping for breads, rolls, ice cream, cakes and scones.
- Add a spoonful of apple butter to your morning bowl of yogurt or oatmeal.
- Add apple butter to butternut squash soup, cranberry sauce or French onion soup.
- Use apple butter as an ingredient in milkshake.
- Use apple butter as an ingredient in making sauce.
What to use apple butter for
Apple butter can be spiced or made into its plain old form – sugar, sugar, and sugar only. How you incorporate apple butter with different food items will depend on this very distinction and also on your taste.
1) As a spread or topping on baked items
Substitute mayonnaise, butter and other spread or sauce for apple butter on bread and other baked items you would normally use them on.
On toasts:
Spread a generous amount of apple butter on your toasts (prepare them the way you like) and up the game with slices of cheese and fruits such as banana or apples. You can also make French toast roll ups with apple butter as the spread and also a key part of the dipping sauce!
On English muffins:
Toast English muffins and slice into halves. Butter one half of the muffin with apple butter and top with fruit slices or some syrup or any topping of your choice. Serve.
On waffles:
Use apple butter in place of whatever topping you normally love to pair with your waffles. For an interesting apple butter richness in the waffles, consider using the apple butter as a spread prior to placing the waffles dough onto the waffle iron plates. Apple butter as a spread prior to baking also works great with crumble cakes, buns, biscuits, crackers, and other pastries.
On sliced fruits:
Apple butter is made from apple, and it does a good job at complementing fresh apple slices when rubbend on them. I’ve only used it on fresh apple slices, but i expect it to work great with fruits that dont have overpowering flavors as well.
Other baked items you can use apple butter as a spread on:
- Cakes
- Sandwich bread
- Buns
- Biscuits
- Crackers
- Other pastries
2) As a dipping sauce
Make BBQ dip sauce with apple butter as the base: Use 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, of barbecue sauce and of apple butter. Mix thoroughly to combine and serve as a condiment for nuggets, chicken fingers, breasts, legs, steak or sea food. You can also incorporate apple butter into any of your favorite dip sauce recipe and then serve with sea foods, fruit slices, and other baked articles or the way you like it. Additionally, feel free to use apple butter in its nudity as a replacement for dip sauce when appropriate. Or, Set out a little bowl of apple butter next to your cheese plate for an additional kick in autumn notes.
3) Condiment for other foods
You can top apple butter on cottage cheese, grilled cheese, or place a spoonful on a plate and serve scallops or fish over. Apple butter also goes well with risotto (a little quantity), and even on roasted mushrooms. Feel free to experiment apple butter on any food item you’re positive should pair well with it, remember, always use the taste and flavor of both the apple butter and the food item in question as your guide.
4) As an ingredient for cooking
In mashed sweet potato:
Bake sweet potatoes until very tender then mash them inside a large bowl and add in butter and apple butter with some seasoning to taste. Use ½ cups of apple butter and 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature) for every 4 pounds sweet potatoes. Recipe adapted from Food & Wine Magazine.
In soups:
Make a simple addition of apple butter into your butternut squash apple soup to build up even more complex flavors. Make the soup as you would first, then extract a puree using a blender and add ½ to ¾ cups of apple butter as you do so. If you like, add a spoonful of apple butter into your French onion soup or even cranberry sauce too. It works well.
Bacon Jam
Apple butter can be cooked with bacon, some flavorful liquid like broth, Worcestershire sauce and spices together with seasoning to form into a sweet-savory jam which can then be paired with many food items ranging from meat to flour based articles.
For baking,
There are more than a thousand recipes (for baked items) that incorporate apple butter as part of their main ingredients, supposedly to kick in that fall notes for a heavenly bite.
Examples include:
-
- Apple butter mac n cheese
- Apple butter ice cream
- Scones
- Shortbread
- Cakes
- Cinnamon rolls
- Bars
- Bread
- Fritters
- Waffles
- Pizza
- Meatloaf
- Cookies
- Pies
- Rugelach
- Pancakes
- Muffins
- Donuts
- Tarts
- Rolls
Apple butter can also be used as it is or incorporated into a filling recipe of your choice and used to fill baked articles such as dumplings, rolls, wonton dumpling etc. It can also be made into some type of liquidly mixture for brushing over dough prior to baking and also post baking. Whatever works in your mind may well turn out good in the kitchen!
5) As a glaze, syrup, or sauce when roasting meat and sea food
Apple butter is a great way to get caramelization on baked meat or sea food. Not to forget the applish, sugarish and spiceish flavors that it all brings to the table. It’s usually brushed over roasted articles in the final minutes of cooking, but can also be used as a coat prior to putting them in the oven if necessary additions are made to prevent the sugar in the apple butter from burning.
6) As a frosting, glaze or syrup on baked goods
Use a mixture of ¼ apple butter, 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1 cup powdered sugar to create a frosting on baked items that quickly solidifies into a crispy yum. You can tweak the recipe or even create your own frosting recipe. If your love for apple butter is intense, consider adding the ingredient into a glaze or syrup recipe for coating items like popcorn or crumble cakes prior to baking and even after baking. Everything is possible with apple butter.
7) In coleslaw
Use a dressing containing apple butter and cider as the main ingredient to coat your favorite salads mixture.
8) Stir it in
Want to be a little more adventurous? Put a tablespoon of apple butter into your morning bowl of oats. Or put it into yoghurt, milk, milkshake, or slap a layer onto your ice cream.
9) As a substitute in cooking
Another brilliant way to incorporate those pints of apple butter tucked away somewhere on the kitchen shelves, is as a heavier substitutes for many ingredients. These include:
- Oil
- Shortening
- Butter
- Other fruit preserves
In the first three cases, the apple butter will serve as a heavier substitute because of its added ingredients of spices and sugar. It will also impart an apple butter taste to the final item. If that doesn’t bother you, but rather sounds like a way to try out something interesting, then go ahead and get those pint jars outta storage and start incorporating the contents into your future kitchen projects.
Other Uses for apple butter
Use apple butter to marinate meat
Apple butter can add interesting flavors to your meat whenever you choose to use it as your marinade. The recipe is easy (Adapted from Food.com),
Mix 4 tablespoons apple butter and chopped green onions, 2 table spoon dry sherry and light soy sauce and ¼ teaspoon grated giver. Apply 2 tablespoons of this mixture on a 1 ½ pound steak or beef, and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take out and broil or grill to desired texture.
Use apple butter to make daiquiri cocktail
Apple butter can be incorporated as a stand out ingredient in cocktails. Just spoon in a little of it alongside other mixtures into a cocktail shaker then pour over ice. Top and garnish as desired.