.png)
🍎 Homemade Honey Apple Butter
Rich, smooth, beautifully spiced apple butter sweetened with honey instead of refined sugar.
🍯 Homemade Goodness • Simple Ingredients • Fall Favorites
There's just something about the smell of apples, cinnamon, and cloves simmering away in the kitchen that makes a house feel like home.
And if you've never made homemade apple butter before, you're missing out on one of fall's simplest pleasures!
This time around, I wanted to try something a little different. Rather than making traditional apple butter with several cups of granulated sugar, I decided to sweeten mine with honey instead.
And let me tell you, the combination of apples, warm spices, and honey is absolutely wonderful!
I started with the Sweet Apple Cider Butter recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, one of my absolute favorite resources for home canning.
Ball provides some interesting variations for this recipe, including a traditional apple butter made with water instead of cider and a honey substitution for those who prefer a less-sweet spread.
I followed those substitution ratios, using 3 cups of water in place of the apple cider and 2 cups of honey instead of the 6 cups of granulated sugar in the traditional version.
The result is a delicious homemade apple butter with that wonderful concentrated apple flavor, warm cinnamon and cloves, and the gentle sweetness of honey.
And despite the name, there's absolutely no dairy butter involved. Apple butter gets its name from its rich, smooth, spreadable texture!
🍯 Why Make Apple Butter with Honey?
Honey brings more than just sweetness to the table. Depending on the variety, it can add subtle floral or caramel-like notes that complement apples beautifully.
I also love that you can adjust the flavor of homemade apple butter by choosing different apple varieties and allowing the fruit to cook down slowly.
As apple butter reduces, its natural flavors become more concentrated. That means there's no need to rush the process!
🍎 What Makes Apple Butter Different from Applesauce?
Both start with apples, but the difference is in how far they're cooked down.
Applesauce is generally soft, moist, and spoonable. Apple butter is cooked longer so more moisture evaporates, producing a darker, thicker, and more concentrated spread.
It takes a little patience, but the finished texture is worth it!
🍯 Homemade Honey Apple Butter
Made with apples, honey, cinnamon, and cloves.
Yield: Varies depending on your apples and how much moisture is cooked away.
Preservation: Boiling-water canning using appropriate jar sizes and processing times, or refrigerator/freezer storage.
🧺 Ingredients
- 6 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups honey
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
🍎 Step-by-Step Directions
- Prepare the apples. Wash your apples thoroughly. Peel, core, and cut them into quarters, removing any spoiled or damaged portions.
- Cook until tender. Combine the prepared apples and 3 cups of water in a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very soft, approximately 30 minutes.
- Make your apple purée. Once the apples are completely softened, process them through a food mill or blend carefully with an immersion blender until smooth. Work carefully with the hot mixture to avoid splashing.
- Add the honey and spices. Return the apple purée to the pot. Stir in the 2 cups of honey, 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon ground cloves. Mix until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Let it cook down. Bring the mixture back to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat. Continue cooking, allowing moisture to escape, and stir frequently to prevent sticking and scorching. As the mixture gets thicker, stir more often. Be careful! Thick fruit butter can bubble and splatter.
- Test for doneness. Place a small spoonful of apple butter on a chilled plate and let it rest briefly. If watery liquid begins spreading around the edges, it needs more time. When the apple butter holds a soft mound without liquid separating, you've reached that wonderful thick, buttery consistency!
- Prepare your jars. Have clean, hot canning jars ready for filling. For shelf-stable canning, use half-pint or pint jars, prepared according to current home-canning instructions.
- Fill the jars. Ladle hot apple butter into the hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, adjust headspace as needed, wipe the jar rims clean, and apply lids and bands according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- Process the jars. Place the jars on a rack in a boiling-water canner, ensuring that water covers the jars by at least 1 inch. Bring the water to a full rolling boil, cover the canner, and begin timing. Process for 10 minutes at elevations of 0–1,000 feet. Increase processing time for higher elevations as explained below.
- Finish processing. When processing is complete, turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and wait 5 minutes. Carefully remove the jars and place them upright on a towel or rack, leaving space between them. Allow to cool undisturbed for 12–24 hours. Check seals, remove bands, label, and store properly sealed jars in a cool, dry, dark location. Refrigerate any jars that did not seal.
🫙 Important Canning & Storage Information
This honey apple butter uses ingredient substitution ratios published in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.
For the traditional variation, Ball replaces apple cider with 3 cups of water and increases the sugar to 6 cups. Ball also provides a honey substitution of 1 cup honey for 3 cups sugar.
I used 3 cups water and 2 cups honey in my batch.
University Extension guidance supports reducing sugar in apple butter, and Oregon State University Extension specifically recognizes honey as an acceptable sweetener for high-acid fruit butters.
For safe shelf-stable preservation, use properly prepared jars, the specified headspace, and the correct boiling-water processing time for your elevation.
⏱️ Altitude Adjustments
For the 10-minute base processing time:
- 0–1,000 feet: 10 minutes
- 1,001–3,000 feet: 15 minutes
- 3,001–6,000 feet: 20 minutes
- Above 6,000 feet: 25 minutes
These are boiling-water canning times for half-pint and pint jars. Begin timing only when the water has returned to a full rolling boil.
After processing, turn off the heat, remove the lid, wait five minutes, then remove the jars.
For refrigerator storage, cool promptly and refrigerate at 40°F or below. For longer freezer storage, use freezer-safe containers with adequate room for expansion.
🌻 Jenny's Tips for Delicious Apple Butter
Choose apples with plenty of flavor.
Golden Delicious and McIntosh are both wonderful choices for apple butter. Mixing sweet and tart varieties can give your finished spread even more depth of flavor.
Use a heavy-bottomed pot.
Apple butter gets thick as it reduces, and the natural sugars in the apples and honey can scorch if you're not careful.
A heavy-bottomed pot helps distribute heat, but don't forget to keep stirring!
Don't rush the reduction.
Apple butter doesn't cook according to a strict clock. The variety of apples, the amount of moisture, and the size of your pot all affect how long it takes.
Focus on the consistency, not just the cooking time.
Try the chilled-plate test.
Place a spoonful on a chilled plate and watch for separation.
If the apple butter stays nicely mounded without watery liquid spreading away from it, you've reached a beautifully thick consistency.
Choose a honey you enjoy.
A lighter, milder honey allows the apples and spices to shine.
A stronger honey can bring a more noticeable flavor of its own. Either way, choose one you love!
Use the correct jar size.
When preserving apple butter, follow the jar sizes specified by your tested canning instructions. Don't assume that a larger jar can be processed for the same amount of time as a smaller one.
🥞 Delicious Ways to Enjoy Honey Apple Butter
- Spread over warm toast or English muffins
- Serve on homemade biscuits
- Swirl into oatmeal or plain yogurt
- Use as a topping for pancakes or waffles
- Pair with sharp cheddar cheese
- Use as a filling for pastries
- Stir a spoonful into a bowl of warm cereal
📚 About the Original Ball Recipe
I based my apple butter on the Sweet Apple Cider Butter recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.
It's one of my favorite resources for home food preservation, and I always encourage fellow canners to keep reliable, tested recipe books close at hand.
Ball's traditional apple butter variation replaces the cider with 3 cups of water and increases the sugar to 6 cups.
The book also offers a honey variation, substituting 1 cup of honey for 3 cups of sugar.
For my batch, I followed those published substitution ratios to make apple butter with 3 cups of water and 2 cups of honey.
I wanted to share exactly what I made and why!
There's also research-based guidance supporting the use of less sugar in apple butter. Ohio State University Extension explains that sugar in apple butter is primarily used for flavor and color rather than being required for preservation safety.
Oregon State University Extension also describes using honey as a substitute for sugar in high-acid fruit butters.
You can read more from these reliable sources:
- Oregon State University Extension: Fruit Butters
- Ohio State University Extension: Sugar in Apple Butter
- National Center for Home Food Preservation: Apple Butter
🫙 My Favorite ForJars Supplies
When I'm making homemade preserves, I love having quality jars and dependable supplies in the kitchen.
I've tried several brands over the years, and ForJars has become my personal favorite for canning lids. I also love their jars and accessories!
And I have a special discount to share with my fellow home preservers!
Use my discount code:
PLOT10
Save 10% on your entire order!
PLUS FREE shipping on orders of $100 or more!
Affiliate Disclosure: I'm a ForJars affiliate and may earn a small commission when you purchase through my affiliate link or use my discount code, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Jenny from the Plot!
Using canning jars alone does not make food shelf-stable. Proper processing according to reliable preservation instructions is essential.
🍯 Simple Ingredients, Homemade Goodness
At the end of the day, that's one of the things I love most about cooking from scratch.
A few simple ingredients, a little patience, and a pot of apples slowly turns into something wonderful.
And the smell of apples, cinnamon, and cloves filling the kitchen? That's just a bonus!
Whether you spread it over a warm biscuit, swirl it into your morning oatmeal, or sneak a little taste straight from the spoon, I hope you enjoy making this honey apple butter as much as I did!