I’ve always felt that my blog is a like a snapshot of my life and right now my life is mostly in my kitchen (as old fashioned and possibly boring as that sounds). I’m spending hours a day prepping food, canning and preserving and when I’m not in the kitchen I’m either in the garden or at the farmers market manning my booth. Don’t get me wrong, I love this kind of work and derive an immense amount of satisfaction from it… but my goodness it’s exhausting!
So because I’m basically sleeping with my canner, I’m back at you with another canning recipe. Now of course you don’t need to can this at all since it’s perfectly delicious and yummy straight out of the slow cooker, but it makes quite a bit so I would suggest cutting down the recipe to suit your needs.
You also don’t need to use a slow cooker if you don’t want to; this recipe can easily be adapted to stovetop. For me, most of my burners are being used constantly all day long, so to have something simmering in a slow cooker without me having to think about it is quite a perk.
Why Crabapples?
I don’t have a crabapple tree so it might seem strange that I’m using them in this recipe. I was lucky enough to be gifted a giant bag of crabapples from a friend. I immediately went into research mode because my first thought was of course “I can totally can these!” Turns out, other than jelly, there weren’t a lot of canning recipes out there for crabapples.
I of course messaged my friend Anita and asked what I could do with them. Her response was “anything you can do with an apple!” Well, duh. So of course if you don’t have crabapples go ahead and substitute with another apple! If you are using a sweeter apple you might want to reduce the sugar a bit… I definitely recommend tasting as you go along.
If you have been thinking about planting a crabapple tree I highly recommend this read by Attainable Sustainable. She’s got me convinced!
- 4 pounds crabapples, stems & blossom end removed (skins on is fine) My crabapples were exactly 1 litre per pound
- 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 2 oranges juiced
- 3 tsp orange zest
- 2 cups raisins
- 2 yellow onions, diced
- 6 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups cane sugar or white sugar
- 3 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp coriander
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- Remove the stems and blossom end of the apple. To remove the stem I used tweezers, grabbed the base of the stem (as far down as I could) and twisted until it came off. No need to peel the apples.
- Place all of your ingredients in your slow cooker and set the temperature to low. Cook for 6-7 hours.
- Once everything is cooked well, using a potato masher, mash all of your ingredients together so that all the pieces break up and incorporate well.
- If you find your chutney watery (I did), keep your slow cooker on low and leave the lid off for 1/2-1 hour. This will allow some of the water to evaporate off.
- Prepare your jars (I wash and sterilize in the oven), lids and canning rings.
- Fill your hot and sterilized jars leaving 1 inch of headspace. Wipe down the rim of the jar and place the lid in the centre and seal the jar using the screwband (fingertip tight).
- Place your jars in your canner ensuring they are completely covered by at least one inch of water. Bring to a boil and set your timer for 15 minutes.
- Once the time is up, use your jar lifter to remove them from the canner and place them somewhere where they can be undisturbed for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours check the seals, remove the bands and wipe down your jars and label them with the date they were canned. Store in a cool and dark place.
Thanks for stopping by for another canning recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And now we pay homage to the tiny but fierce crabapple.
Peace,
