Green Living Australia .com .au

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Low-Cal Apple Butter

1 kg apples
1 Cinnamon stick – 5 cm
10 cloves
½ cup water
1 teaspoon gelatin
1 tablespoon water


Core apples and cut into quarters.

Tie the cinnamon and cloves into a muslin bag.

Place apples, spices and water into a saucepan and cook uncovered until the apples become mushy and the liquid has evaporated.

Remove from heat, and remove the spice bag.

Sieve or process the apple and add sweetner to taste.

Soak gelatin in water, about 5 minutes, then stand it over hot water and stir until it has dissolved.

Add gelatin to the apple.

Check the taste and add sweetner to desired level.

Pack and seal in small jars.

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Adding sugar to desired level - you can use sugar, but seeing this is a low-cal recipe you could use artifical sweetners or Stevia Rebaudiana, which is a herbacous plant that is a natural sweetner with no calories and safe for diabetics when used as for normal sweetening.

I have read numerous articles about its sweetness, even when I bought the herb the label said it was 300 times sweeter than sugar – it is but it isn't

The first link below has a paragraph about the sweetness factor – there is a single molecule extracted from the leaf that is 300 times sweeter than sugar, but its percentage in the leaf is 6-18%.
The leaf does taste sweet and it is nice to chew on, but it is not like having a spoonful of sugar. I used to blend it into whatever food I wanted to sweeten.

http://www.rain-tree.com/stevia.htm

http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/newslett/ncn11161.htm

I was growing it here in Adelaide, but lost it after a few years. I think the winters were a bit hard for it to take and our salty water can knock over many plants – its from Paraguay, which is sub-tropical with a high rainfall. It is commonly available at nurseries that have a good herb section.

Andy