If you’re having a hard time finding probiotic and fermented foods that you and your family will love. You have to try my Probiotic Paleo Apple Butter.
Gala apples are slow cooked for four hours, pureed with cinnamon and cloves and allowed to simmer until thickened into apple butter bliss. The apple butter is fermented with culture starter for 2 days to make a sweet and delicious probiotic treat.
Enjoy Probiotic Paleo Apple Butter spread on toast, added to yogurt, oatmeal or whatever else your heart desires. It’s surprisingly sweet and has no added sugar. This method brings out the natural sweetness of the apples so you don’t need no stinkin’ sugar and it’s paleo diet approved.
Fermenting the apple butter gives it more flavor and makes it good for your gut. I made two apple butters. One that was fermented and one that wasn’t. I did a taste test with my mother in-law over the weekend and there was a significant difference in flavor. The fermented apple butter was packed with more flavor.
What makes it probiotic?
This recipe is considered cultured because we have to add a culture starter to ferment it. Because of the high sugar content we can’t use lacto-fermentation like I do with my fermented vegetable recipes. The culture starter I use often and highly recommend is Body Ecology’s Culture Starter.
The culture starter adds good bacteria to the apple butter, so while it’s fermenting on your counter for 1-3 days the good bacteria consume some of the sugar and multiply, making it rich in probiotics.
Health Benefits of Probiotic Foods
Some of the positive effects I have experienced eating probiotic/ fermented foods are clearer skin, better digestion and increased energy and maintaining my weight. Dr. Mercola explains the benefits of fermented foods as…
Fermented foods are chock-full of probiotics or good bacteria. A myriad of research has demonstrated how the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut forms the foundation for physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
- Eating fermented foods daily will strengthen your immune system, reduce bloating and control weight.
- Can heal a multitude of health issues including leaky gut, IBS, weight loss, lead to clearer skin and better immune system.
- 3 pounds of gala apples or other sweet apple (about 9-10 medium apples)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 packet of body ecology culture starter
- slow cooker
- mason jar
- Peel and core the apples and cut them into quarters.
- Place them in a slow cooker for 4 hours on high.
- After 4 hours the apples will be soft.
- Puree the apples using a blender or hand blender.
- Add them back to the slow cooker.
- Add the cinnamon and cloves to the pureed apples and mix until evenly distributed.
- Cook on high in the slow cooker for 1 more hour uncovered until thickened.
- Let cool to room temperature.
- Once apple butter has cooled to room temperature add 1 packet of culture starter to the apple butter and put it in a mason jar.
- Cover the mason jar loosely with a lid and sit on the counter for 2-3 days or until it's bubbly.
- Once air bubbles form in the apple butter it's ready to be refrigerated.
- Store in the refrigerator for several weeks.
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Fermented Foods: How to ‘Culture’ Your Way to Optimal Health
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If I use organic apples, is it okay to leave the skins on?
No, because it won’t have the right consistency if you leave the peels on.
How would you compare the Body Ecology Starter with a home made Ginger Bug or the whey from my kefir cheese preparation? Sometimes I use the ginger Bug I keep alive in my kitchen and use it in beet Kevas, it works very nicely.
Hi Eric, you can use ginger bug or whey to culture the apple butter too. I haven’t tried it myself, but I know recipes that call for it. It may change the flavor vs. the starter culture. Using the ginger bug may taste better than the whey, because ginger would be a nice complimentary flavor to the spice in the apple butter.
Do you think I could use water kefir grain to culture the apple butter since they love fruit sugars and sugar water? I know I’d have to restrain it, but I’m trying to use what I have and don’t particularly care to use the powders unless absolutely necessary. Thanks!
I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure it will work.
I must say it’s tempting… I have a question, if using water kefir, would you add the grains (and how to get them back at the end of the fermentation…) or would you add some of the loose ferment (the cloudy water) you find at the bottom of the bottles of water kefir?
many thank’s for your advice
I haven’t tried this myself, so I’m not sure. The kefir water may be enough to trigger fermentation. If you use the water kefir grains, you can strain them out of the butter with a fine mesh strainer. If you do this, please let me know how it worked :)
It works ! :-D
I’ve used the bottom of a bottle of water kefir to ferment the apple butter and it’s quite bubbly and tastes real nice…
I’m surprised by how quick it was : I’ve started fermentating this morning and the lid popped tonight….
byzeway, It tastes way more like an “apple mousse” than an apple butter (at least the batch I cooked…)
Wow! I’ll have to give that a try. Thank you for letting me know :)
Can I use a tablespoon or two of sauerkraut juice to ferment the Apple butter instead of the culture starter?
I haven’t tried it myself, but it will probably work. If you do, please let me know how it went.
Danielle, I made this using whey as a starter. Is the final product supposed to taste more sour than sweet? Mine tastes mostly sweet. I let it ferment for 24 hours and refrigerated it as soon as I saw tiny air bubbles forming. Should I have let it ferment for longer?
The longer you let it ferment the more sour it will get and the more probiotics it will have. You can let it go another day or two and it should still have sweetness. I taste it each day until it has the flavor I like.
Recipe sounds yummy! How much liquid whey would I use in place of the powdered culture? Thank you.
A tablespoon should do.
Hello Danielle,
Thank you for this beautiful recipe. I’m completely new to the fermentation world and eager to witness its benefits!
Do you use any liquid when you cook the apples in the slow cooker? I assume you don’t but I prefer to double-check!
Thanks!
Audrey