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1
Tasty Optional:
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Heat the apple cider to boiling remove from heat and steep the tea bags for 5 minutes. No longer or it`ll be to bitter and astringent. If you want more tea flavor just add an other tea bag.
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3
Place 1/3 of the apple and 1/3 of the lemon juice in a running food processor through feed tube and then pulse till smooth then place in crock pot with plain or optional steeped tea cider on high heat. Continue with other 2/3`rds apples and juice.
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4
Cook for 18 hours on high in crock pot or 8 hour low in crock pot.
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Watch pot for burning and do turn heat down to low if need be.
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Stir the apples about every couple hours and more toward the end of cooking. Add sugars, and 1/2 the spices. Mix all together and cook 2-8 more hours. Depending on how much liquid the apples had and how hot your crock gets.
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7
You want a spreadable jam consistency.
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8
Taste and add more spices to taste.
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9
For a smoother butter use immersion blender to blend.
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10
Fill the jars to within 1/4-inch of the top, wipe any apple butter of the top and rim, place the lids and tighten the ring around them.
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11
Process the jars in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water and boiling.
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12
Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner.
