It maybe a bit out of sequence (sorry utahs.f.) but I keep meaning to post my experiences this season with apple butter, which is highly popular around here. I used Roma apples - roughly chopped, wormy bits (few) removed, and enough to fill a 3 gal stock pot, stems, seeds, skin and all. Added a couple cups of water and simmered on low until soft, 2-3 hours. Let that cool overnight, then I ran it all through the tomato strainer, resulting in a thick applesauce, seeds, skin, and stems removed. I ladled all that out (approx two gallons)and used the dehydrator to make fruit leather. Started another batch of chopped apples in the stock pot. The next morning, the leather was done, the chopped apples cooked and cooled, so I made apple sauce from that, tore up the sheets of fruit leather, and added brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of lime juice and put the whole thing in the 2+ gal crock pot. Turned it on 'high' until it started to blurble, turned it on low. It was all done, deep brown and so thick a fork would stand up in it, that evening, 7 hours later. Yield was 13 pints. So, I dunno, I still used a lot of electricity, with simmering the stock pot twice for a total of 6 hours, 14 hours of food dehydrator, and another 7 hours of crock pot. Pretty good stuff, though. We did this twice, used about 2 bushels of apples, and ended up with 30 pints. It seemed to me that cooking the peels and all made for lots of pectin, which thickened it up. It was really easy to run it all through the strainer, only took a few minutes. Making fruit leather with half of it kept the intense apple flavor, which went back into the final result. I think we'll do this the next time as well.

/tricia- I live in Kansas and we average about 200+ sunny days and another 90-100 partially sunny days per year. About the only time of the year I have a problem using my solar ovens is when the farmers burn the wheat stubble after harvest and there is too much haze in the sky for good cooking temperatures - even on a sunny day - but that's only for a couple weeks a year. Cooking the Pumpkin Apple Butter outdoors was a good move yesterday because it was 97-degrees F and it was good to keep the heat out of the kitchen for 1-1/2 hours.... Yes, solar ovens require your attention to move them every 30-60 minutes to track the sun. Keep in mind too, not everything needs to cook/bake for long periods of time. I also have a Tulsi Hybrid Solar Oven (a favorite of Missionaries in the field in 3rd World Countries) which has an electric over-ride so you don't risk the temperature going below an unsafe cooking temperature if you don't get it moved in a timely manner, or if clouds come in. At that point, just think of it as a electric Slow-Cooker. You would never know there are lentils in the waffles. Hubby didn't the first time I served them (LOL) and now they are a once-a-week favorite. Sprouted lentils are a little sweeter than cooked lentils and the lentils are well-blended into the batter in a blender - so no whole lentils present. SPROUTED LENTIL-OAT WAFFLES Soak overnight: 1 c. water plus 2 T. kefir (or whey, yogurt, or lemon juice) 3/4 c. oatmeal The next morning blend the water/oatmeal with 1/2 c. sprouted lentils (I soak the oatmeal in my Bullet Blender cup, add the lentils the next morning and blend, when making a single recipe). Add: 1/4 c. whey protein isolate (or any kind of protein powder) 1 T. vanilla 1 T. chia seeds (optional) 1/2 T. coconut oil (melted) 1/2 T. agave nectar or coconut nectar (or sugar of choice) 1/4 t. salt I make these on my thin heart-shaped waffle iron, 1/4 c. batter per waffle. This size fits in my toaster. When I make two or three batches at once I'll use my Ninja blender for the batter and freeze the baked waffles. -Grainlady

Not apple butter..... The clue is cook to the jell stage and the other clue is the amount of sugar. Apple butter has very little sugar compared to the amount of apples and is pretty much apples a littls sugar and spices reduced way down. Linda C Here is a link that might be useful: how to make applebutter

Given the qualifiers you've posted, I'm guessing that it's the syrupiness, that's as much from the combination of the apple's juice and the butter, that you're really missing, If it's just the texture of the sugar, you can melt it with a little apple juice before you bake the apple, and perhaps baste a few times to make sure the caramel qualities stick. Perhaps it would be better in that case to do halves so you could keep the syrup in the channel from the core. For that sauce with butter in it velvetiness, it would be hard to make a substitute. The closest would be margarine, but that is also a problem. My only contribution there is to ask if you've looked at/tried Earth Balance (I see someone else also recommended it). It doesn't have anything weird in it, and it's totally non-dairy, but it might be just as bad as the other butter substitutes you don't care for. It's fine in cookies and some sauces though I'm less confident that it wouldn't break in a baked apple. If other animal fats are okay, I think the suggestion of schmaltz is a good one, but it would have to be rendered without onions or seasoning. You might also consider duck fat, which I think tastes better than chicken fat. Good luck finding a satisfactory method!