This isn’t a review of the 1999 movie starring Toby Maguire, I just like playing with words and using movie and song titles to add a bit of fun to my blog. :) Though, John Irving wrote the book it’s based off of, as well as my favorite novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany. But I digress.
No, this post is all about the humble autumnal favorite: spiced apple cider.
This is also my first post! So welcome! Hopefully, this will be the first of many, many yummy posts, crafty posts, and funny, weird posts. Because that’s how I roll. :D
I received a gallon of freshly pressed cider from a friend, and made quick work of spicing it up a little (thought it was perfectly tasty on it’s own)!
I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some warm spiced cider this fall. I prefer making my own this way, because most places serve the stuff out of a packet which is loaded with sugar. Don’t get me wrong, I like my sweet stuff, but the packet stuff is always a little too sweet and fake to me.
Level: Easy
Serves: 16 8oz. servings
Active Time: 5 minutes
Passive Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 65 minutes
Ingredients:
– 1 gallon apple cider, unfiltered (not regular apple juice)
– 1 orange (any larger variety, or several small)
– 2 Tbsp whole cloves
– 1 Tbsp whole allspice
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1/4 cup white sugar (to taste) optional, see notes
Tools:
– large pot, dutch oven, or slow cooker (with lid, if possible)
– wooden spoon
– ladle
– funnel (with filter, if available)
– containers for finished cider (see notes)
– cheesecloth (see notes)
– baker’s twine (see notes)
Method:
- Pierce rind of orange with whole cloves, leaving them embedded. If serving cider with oranges, feel free to make a design in the orange with the cloves!
- Pour cider into large dutch oven or pot. If a lid is available, great! Set burner temperature to low, and cover, so as not to lose too much water as it heats.
- Gently drop studded orange, allspice and cinnamon sticks into cider to float freely. If you are inclined, add your sugar as well. Start with 1/4 cup, then add more to taste once it’s dissolved into the warm cider.
- As cider heats, stir occasionally and taste test, adding more sugar if desired.
- Heat until just below simmering, making sure all sugar has dissolved completely.
- You can now discard of the orange and the floating bits if you don’t want to worry about them being in the way of serving.
- If serving right away, it’s best to leave on a low burner or to make in a crock pot so you can leave it on a warm setting and people can come get some as they like. Make sure it is not simmering – just staying warm. You don’t want it to boil away during your gathering!
- If not serving right away, continue with the following steps.
- Place funnel in the opening of the original cider container, or whichever containers you want to store the cider in. If your funnel doesn’t have a strainer-type insert, you can use a bit of cheesecloth to catch the floating bits – or, just let them sit in the cider.
- Using a ladle, gently move cider from the cooking pot to the funnel, filling up your container(s) as needed.
- Wait for cider to finish cooling completely before securing the lid of the container(s) and placing in the fridge.
- To serve, once chilled: shake the container, to mix back in the sediment. Warm up in your favorite mug, or reheat the whole batch on the stove!
Notes:
- If you don’t have whole allspice, cloves, or cinnamon, you can use ground as well, but you will have more sediment at the bottom of your mixture over time, and there might be a slight grittiness to the drink if you add too much. You also will need to pierce the orange with the tip of a knife to let the orange essence seep into your cider. I’ve definitely used ground cinnamon when I ran out of cinnamon sticks, and it had a great taste!
- You can reuse whatever container the cider came in, or put it in something different, divide it up for gifts, etc. Just make sure the containers are clean!
- If you want to avoid having to fish spice bits out of your cider, you can put all the whole spices into a small parcel of layered cheesecloth and tie off with baker’s twine. It totally depends on how much effort you want to put in at what stage in the process.
- I think most store-bought cider already has quite a bit of extra sugar added – so please add sugar at your own risk! I definitely do mine to taste, because sometimes the inherent bitterness of the orange oils can alter the taste of the cider slightly until the sweetness from the flesh part comes through. Some oranges are just not that sweet, either, so play around with the ratios.
Have you tried this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out below!
The Crafty Raven 