These fruit butter recipes are pure gold ~ taking that peak summer overflow and turning it into the smoothest, most flavorful spread for cozy days ahead.
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What is fruit butter?
Fruit butter is just fresh fruit, cooked way down until it’s thick, silky, and bursting with flavor. It gets pureed and sometimes strained for extra smoothness, but the magic really comes from slow cooking ~ it thickens naturally as the moisture cooks off, no pectin needed.
Unlike jam or jelly, fruit butter has a rich, velvety texture and super concentrated flavor. It’s perfect for beginners because there’s nothing fussy about it—just cook, blend, and cook a little more 🙂
That idea of reducing water to intensify flavor is one of the oldest tricks in the culinary book, and fruit butter is a beautiful, simple example of how powerful it can be.
Fruit Butter Basics
- Prep the fruit. Wash it and remove any pits, cores, stems, or tough peels.
- Cook until soft. Add the fruit to a heavy pot with a small splash of water, juice, or cider. Cover and simmer until completely tender.
- Purée. Blend the softened fruit until smooth, then return it to the pot.
- Add sugar and flavorings. Sweeten to taste and add spices, citrus, or other flavorings if you like.
- Cook it down. Simmer gently, uncovered, stirring often, until the purée becomes dark, glossy, and thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon.
- Cool and store. Spoon into clean jars, cool, and refrigerate or freeze.
Of all the fruit preserves, fruit butter is my favorite. Luckily, it can be made with nearly any kind of fruit. Here are some of the best fruit butter recipes to get you started…
HOW TO MAKE APPLE BUTTER
You can make apple butter with any apple variety, but a mix of sweet and tart apples gives it the most interesting flavor. Try Honeycrisp with Granny Smith, Fuji with Pink Lady, or Gala with Braeburn.
EASY PEACH BUTTER
Peach butter starts out looser than most fruit butters, so give it plenty of time to cook down. The slow simmer concentrates the peach flavor and turns it thick and silky. Peach butter naturally deepens in color as it cooks, but a little lemon juice and a wide pan help it stay brighter by shortening the cooking time.
RHUBARB BUTTER
For the prettiest rhubarb butter start with nice red stalks. Give it a taaste towards the end of cooking to see if it needs more sugar to balance the tartness of the fruit.
MAPLE CRANBERRY BUTTER
Cranberries are naturally high in pectin, so this butter thickens faster than most.
CROCK POT PUMPKIN BUTTER
If you don’t want to stand at the stove, let the crock pot do the work!
CRANBERRY BUTTER
I love to add seasonal spices to this recipe for a fabulous holiday gift.
BOURBON BANANA BUTTER
You just have to try this unusual fruit butter to believe it! It’s so good with morning scones and biscuits.
What to do with fruit butters
If you need a little inspiration for using up your delicious fruit butters, try these ideas.
WITH TOAST: slather it on a big slice of Toasting White Bread.
ON SCONES: my Classic Cream Scones Recipe will work with all these fruit butters.
IN YOGURT: make a batch of Homemade Yogurt (high protein)
IN MUESLI: fruit butter is great with Toasted Muesli.
COOK WITH IT: My Apple Butter Baked Beans and my Apple Butter Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream are family favorites.
MAKE A COCKTAIL: Smooth fruit butter incorporates well into cocktails, just the way jam does.
ADD IT TO A SANDWICH: try it on a Ham and Jam Sandwich.
You have solved my Christmas Gift Giving problems with your Fruit Butter Ideas. Thank you.
Love this round up of fruit butters! Need to try quite a few…
I love all the different recipes for your fruit butters. My friend has a lot of different pear trees and I can’t wait to make your recipe.
Pear butter’s one of my favorites, love it with vanilla bean <3
Now I need more fruit so I can make some of these beautiful butters! Terrific roundup Sue 😉
I’ve got to try that pumpkin butter and the banana. Great line-up Sue.
This compilation is wonderful, thank you. Since I have a pile of almost over ripe peaches just waiting for attention I chose the peach butter. I’m not so sure about the vanilla. How long should I water bath ½ pints of this Peach Butter?
That recipe is written as a refrigerator recipe, and so I’m not sure about canning it. You can freeze it for longer storage though. I’m hesitant to recommend canning instructions since I’m not absolutely sure. Here is a recipe specifically for canned peach butter ~ https://www.nwcherries.com/peachbutter
Making apple butter is a yearly tradition for me. One of my favorite things to do with it, besides spread it on toast or English muffins, is to use it with a pork tenderloin. I roast the pork, along with cut up sweet potatoes and, during the last few minutes of cooking, I slather on a layer of apple butter. The butter mingles with the pan juices and gives the sweet potatoes a delicious, cinnamon-y flavor kick. Your recipe photos are, as always, beautiful and I love it that your recipes are so in tune with the season!
Thank you so much Lynn, I try especially hard to be on target seasonally with these Sunday posts! And you can bet I’ll be trying your pork idea, tenderloin is my favorite cut.
Oh, Yum-OLA!!!!! Thanks so much for these ideas. I’ll be trying some soon.
I’m always looking for new words to describe delicious food Diana, so I’m going to have to borrow yum-ola 🙂
Hi,
Do you have any ideas on how I could adopt these recipes to use some of the one billion lemons all over my back yard?!
Thank you very much
Wendy Widlus
I would make lemon curd, Wendy! ~ Lemon Curd
Why are the recipes so hard to find?
Virginia, if you click on the recipe title name, it should open a new window with the recipe. At least that’s the way I do it.
Thanks Lynn!
Ok thanks so much I was clicking on the picture
Why am I not surprised? 🙂 Another beauty to share …
haha, have a tasty Sunday 🙂