When the apples start to pile up and you’re thinking about making apple sauce, someone will mention this recipe for apple butter made in a slow cooker. It really works. This version is from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” by Sheri Castle (The University of North Carolina Press, $35). The bonus is that your house will smell delicious while this is cooking. Sheri notes that you can substitute 2 pounds of sweet potatoes for part of the apples and make apple-sweet potato butter. Interesting.
Do you have one of those $20 apple peelers that sticks the apple on a pronged skewer and slowly rotates it through a peeler and slicer? I thought they were a gimmick until I tried one. Fabulous! Apples, peeled (or not), cored and sliced in 10 seconds. Really.