Slice and core apples. You can peel them if you want but I don’t. Cut them into small chunks (smaller pieces cook faster).

Place apples in the bottom of a 7qt slow cooker. Top with both sugars and cinnamon then toss to combine.

Cover and cook on high for 3-5 hours, stirring after 2 hours. Cook until the apples look translucent, this took about 4 hours in my slow cooker.

Use a hand blender to blend the apples and their liquid into a smooth sauce. If you don’t have a hand blender you can do this in a regular blender, but work in batches being careful not to overfill the blender with hot apples and leave the lid cracked when you run it so it doesn’t explode.

Once your apples are blended, place them back in the slow cooker (if you’ve removed them to blend). Continue cooking on high with the lid cracked for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the mixture reduces to your desired thickness.

Stir in salt and vanilla then let cool and place in jars or freezer containers. At this point you can can the mixture if you wish or use the cooled apple butter in other recipes or on toast. Without canning apple butter will last about 2 weeks if stored in the refrigerator.