Recipe Summary
A super-easy way to make homemade apple butter recipe, my favorite molasses apple butter Instant Pot (pressure cooker) recipe! Ready in an hour from start to finish and tastes amazing!
This Apple Butter Recipe is made in the pressure cooker (Instant Pot) and tastes amazing!
I grew up enjoying molasses apple butter recipe with a batch of layered southern biscuits. Traditionally apple butter recipes would take all day, but now I enjoy making it in my pressure cooker to save time without losing flavor.
What is apple butter?
I’ve been asked, “What is apple butter?” many times. Simply put it is a glorified concentrated and caramelized apple sauce that can be used like butter. Just to clarify, there is none, zero, zilch butter at all in any of the recipes used to make apple butter. Just a handful of spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or allspice are added to give it a depth of rich flavor.
There are several approaches to making an apple butter recipe, such as slow cooker apple butter, to cooking it for hours in a large dutch oven or baking it off in the oven. All of which I have done and enjoyed, but to get the same great results and all within an hour, cooking apple butter in a pressure cooker is by far my go-to favorite method.
How long will apple butter last?
Apple butter can be kept in the refrigerator for 2 – 3 weeks without preserving or canning. You can also freeze it in freezer safe jars or freezer bags for up to a year, or you can process canned (bottled) apple butter in a hot water bath to seal which will keep for 6 – 12 months.
The Spruce Eats has a great article on the hot water process for preserving.
Other pressure cooker recipes to try:
- Columbian chicken, corn and potato stew, ajiaco recipe, a hearty stew made in the instant pot or pressure cooker.
- Instant Pot beef bourguignon Recipe, classic French cuisine made in the pressure cooker and tastes amazing.
- Apple butternut squash soup, made in 30 minutes from start to finish in the pressure cooker, so delicious and a perfect fall soup recipe.
How to make no-peel apple butter
Easy Instant Pot Apple Butter Recipe
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Core and slice apples into quarters, 4 slices per apple. Do not peel.
- Place apple slices, brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, water, and molasses into an Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, set the valve to seal, and set to hi for 15 minutes.
- Let pressure release naturally for about 20 minutes or use the quick release to allow steam to release.
- Carefully remove the lid and transfer cooked apples and most (all but about 1/2 – 1 cup) of the juices to a blender. Blend on puree until smooth. *See note below*
- Transfer apple butter sterilized jars and allow to cool at room temperature or proceed to process in a hot water bath for the canning method.
Nutrition
Notes
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This looks amazing! How long would it take to make in a crock pot?
Hello Meghan! Thank you! If you make this in the crockpot, plan to cook it for about 5 hours on high or about 8 -10 hours on the low setting. 🙂
Thank you, Stacey, for your excellent recipe! I just made a nice big batch, but peeled my big old apples because they came from the grocery store (so are covered in insecticide). I used my old fashioned pressure cooker and only molasses to sweeten….oh my, what an easy recipe.
Janet
You are most welcome Janet! I’m so happy you enjoyed!! I’m making a batch agaain today myself!
Could I replace the cloves with mixed spice or allspice? Also, how long will it keep? I have masses of apples so I’m looking at ways to preserve them apart from freezing!
Hello Tricia. Yes, you certainly can replace cloves for the mixed spice. It should keep for up to a year using the water bath method (https://www.ballmasonjars.com/water-bath-canning.html)