sugar. how much depends on how sweet you want your apple butter to be. it’s especially important to keep stirring the apple butter once the sugar is added because it will burn more quickly.
the apple butter is ready when it cooks down to exactly the right consistency. to test it the “gerber way”, dip a spoonful of apple butter out of the kettle, let it cool slightly on the spoon and then tilt the spoon downward as if to empty it. if the apple butter slowly drops off the spoon with a “plop” (a very technical term), it’s finished and ready to take off the fire.
june recommends having some freshly 