Pinterest Thursday: An Apple a Day

I was a bit of an over-achiever this week and I tried two things from one of my Pinterest boards. A few weeks ago, Handy Andy and I were in Michigan visiting my family and we went to my sister-in-law's family apple orchard. We have so many apples from that excursion that I decided to try some fall recipes using the apples. Here's what I settled on:

Slow cooker apple butter from Oh My! Sugar High.

Ingredients:

5 1/2 pounds (approx. 15-16 cups) of baking apples – peeled, cored and finely chopped
2 to 2 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Peel and slice apples to equal 15 to 16 cups. Finely chop apples and add to crock pot. Stir together sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt and pour over chopped apples. Mix together apples and sugar mixture. Cover and heat on high for 1 to 2 hours. Stir and reduce heat to low. Cook an additional 9 to 11 hours or until thick and dark brown, stirring occasionally. To reduce the amount of chunks, stir with a whisk. Remove cover off crock pot and cook an additional 3-6 hours or until the mixture is a dark brown and is thick. To test for  the right consistency, place a little onto a plate or bowl and allow it to cool.
And...

Apple muffins from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Cream together:
2 cups sugar (I use 1 1/2 cups)
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Sift:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.

Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon (I never sift and they turn out fine). Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.
Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

(On a side note, both of these blogs are awesome, so you should definitely hop on over and follow them!)

Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about making the muffins (as I have made plenty of muffins before), however I was nervous about the apple butter because I have never made anything like that. But, the recipe looked so simple (and yummy) that I had to try it.

I started off with this (and that's not even all of them):

I peeled and cored the apples, and used my food processor to chop them up. Then, I pretty much just followed the two recipes with a few minor adjustments (I may have added a little more spice to my apple butter because I like it that way). Also, I didn't have any paper liners for my muffins, so I cut some wax paper into squares and that worked just fine. One tip about the muffins, when I got to the end of preparing the batter, it seemed a little dry, so I added some more oil until I felt good about the moistness. They turned out perfectly!

I let the apple butter cook on low all night in the slow cooker, and by morning it was looking just as delicious as the muffins! So I skipped the last step of 3-6 hours without the cover because it was on low for over 9-11 hours through the night and looked perfect with a final whisking.

Let me tell you, both of these recipes are winners! I took the apple muffins to work and they were a huge hit! I kept the apple butter at home for Handy Andy and myself. It is so good and so much easier than I expected!

So, there you have it, a successful Pinterest Thursday. If you're looking for some good fall apple recipes -- these should be at the top of the list!

Have you tried any good fall recipes this season?

P.S. I'm linking up to these fun link parties - check them out!