My housewarming party in Kol had an autumn theme, so I had a taste of my regular fall food experience in mid-November. The mild 2011 Swedish winter allowed apples in the orchard outside Maria’s door to still be edible; they had not had a true, deep hard frost yet, despite it being mid-December & only a day or two of light snow. Snow, though, was in the forecast & the food-preparation cycle of the seasons which I’d missed departing before the late summer harvests in Minnesota called to me as I sat looking out Maria’s window my first morning in Skå Edeby.
Three large shopping bags were filled with ice cold apples as cotton ball flakes fell later that afternoon, me digging under hillocks of wet snow, hoping to find usable fruit. It felt wonderful to spend the next morning making a quadruple batch of sweet & spicy apple butter, stirring it every twenty minutes for six hours as I unpacked India, reorganizing my suitcase of worldly goods for Sweden.
Apples waiting for me!
Final result? Champagne quality apple butter...we tried to replicate using the same recipe once we arrived @ Jordo, but didn't succeed...the apples at Maria's had their sweetness intensified through the gradual cool down into near freezing for weeks since the summer sun waned - an ideal setting, obviously, to make a richly nuanced fruit butter, full of the taste of autumn that everyone enjoyed receiving as small Christmas tokens when I visited their homes & school!
Three large shopping bags were filled with ice cold apples as cotton ball flakes fell later that afternoon, me digging under hillocks of wet snow, hoping to find usable fruit. It felt wonderful to spend the next morning making a quadruple batch of sweet & spicy apple butter, stirring it every twenty minutes for six hours as I unpacked India, reorganizing my suitcase of worldly goods for Sweden.
Stockholm Apple Butter
Ingredients
3.5 cups raw apple sauce
1 cup water
1 cups sugar + 1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon + 1/2 a lemon - I also used orange peel
1 pinch ginger - I used a two inch piece of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon - I added cardamom, cloves, nutmeg & a pinch of allspice
Instructions
1. Peel two or three kilos of apples & cook down over slow heat until you have 3 - 4 cups of apple sauce. Put through a sieve or blend a bit until quite smooth
2. Mix apple sauce, water, juice of one lemon, 1 cups of sugar, & spices in a medium sized pot.
3. Bring to a boil, then cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for five to six hours or until it sticks to the back of a spoon without running off.
4. Add up to 1 more cup of sugar and the juice of half a lemon to the mixture, allowing it to cook for 10 minutes more. (Watch it more carefully as you add sugar - it gets quite sticky)
3.5 cups raw apple sauce
1 cup water
1 cups sugar + 1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon + 1/2 a lemon - I also used orange peel
1 pinch ginger - I used a two inch piece of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon - I added cardamom, cloves, nutmeg & a pinch of allspice
Instructions
1. Peel two or three kilos of apples & cook down over slow heat until you have 3 - 4 cups of apple sauce. Put through a sieve or blend a bit until quite smooth
2. Mix apple sauce, water, juice of one lemon, 1 cups of sugar, & spices in a medium sized pot.
3. Bring to a boil, then cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for five to six hours or until it sticks to the back of a spoon without running off.
4. Add up to 1 more cup of sugar and the juice of half a lemon to the mixture, allowing it to cook for 10 minutes more. (Watch it more carefully as you add sugar - it gets quite sticky)
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