Chocolate Apple Butter

Looks like pudding, doesn’t it? But no, it’s apple butter!

I've eaten some apple butters, and I always feel like they're missing a little something. You can read that as, “I don’t like apple butter.” But I never know what that something is other than that I don’t like it the way it’s usually made. I was poking about in my pantry when I sawcocoa powder, and I figured that might make a nice addition to the butter. And holy cow I was right. I tasted it right after it came off the stove and I was astounded by how the cocoa just enriched the whole experience. This is an apple butter I can really get behind!

Here’s what you’ll need

7 apples (I used 5 granny smith, 1 red delicious, 1 yellow apple)
6 cups of water (8 if you need to add a little more, like I did)
1 cinnamon stick or about a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon
2 star anise (optional)
15 allspice berries or about a teaspoon of powdered allspice
4 whole cloves or 1/4 teaspoon powdered clove
1 slice dried galanga or ginger or about 1/8 teaspoon of powdered ginger
9 cardamom pods or 1/4 teaspoon powdered cardamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 black peppercorns
1 large lemon (use all the juice and 9" of peel without pith)
1/2 cup vanilla sugar or 1/2 cup sugar plus a teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

NOTE: if you don’t have all these spices, just toss in a couple teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Most of y’all probably have some leftover from Thanksgiving.

Here’s what you’ll do

Peel, core and chop the apples (technically, you can just chop without peeling or coring). Put them in a saucepan with 6 cups of water, salt, and the juice of your lemon. In a large tea ball, cheesecloth or whatever method you normally make to tie up a bouquet garnis-type thing, combine lemon rind, cinnamon, anise, allspice, cloves, galanga, cardamom, and peppercorns and then drop that little bundle into the saucepan. If you’re using powdered spices, just toss those in there and make sure you pull the peel out later. Simmer over medium heat for 1-2 hours, or until you can easily smush the apples with the back of a wooden spoon (pro-tip: use the crockpot or IP instead!). Remove spice packet, then transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Return to saucepan and add sugars and cocoa and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until it is thick enough that when you stir the bottom, you can see the part of the pot where you stirred for a couple seconds. Alternately, because there's so much water in there it'll take ages to do over low heat, you can put it at medium-high heat for about a half hour or until the volume is greatly reduced. Then when a lot of the water has boiled off, you can lower the heat and do the frequent stirring bit.

If you feel like canning this (I didn't), you can do it in a water bath for 15 minutes. Otherwise, put it in a container then the fridge and eat it within a couple weeks. Makes approximately 2 1/4 cups.