Aaron's Awesome Apple Butter

The name of it says it all. This apple butter will blow your mind away, it is so good. And I made it up myself, experimenting over the years since I moved into Apple Country (aka Washington State.). Here is the recipe.

Apples
lemon juice
2-3 C sugar
2 T Cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cloves

Peel, core and slice enough apples to fill your 6 quart crock pot to the line. throw in a few splashes of lemon juice and stir them up to keep them from browning too much. Let it cook a few hours, till the apple slices start to break down. Add 2 C sugar and the spices. Stir it up, and taste. Depending on how sweet the apples were, add more sugar, up to 1 cup. Let this cook down till the apples are super mushy, then blend it all together with a hand blender. You can also do this, in batches, in a food processor or blender. Or run it through a food mill. Just get it uber smooth. Taste and adjust the spices if necessary. Let it cook with the lid partially off until the butter reaches the right consistency; it should coat the back of a spoon. Can it in a hot water bath fifteen minutes for pints or half-pints, 20 minutes for quarts. (this is longer than what the USDA recommends, but butters are so thick I like to give it extra time, just to make sure the center of the jars get hot enough.) Naturally, if you live at a higher elevation, increase you canning time.

The secret is the Ginger. I've never run across a recipe with ginger in it. I've also made apple blackberry butter and plan to make plum-apple butter by replacing about a third of the apples with the other fruit.