Fall is here so we kicked off the season by making this fresh, old fashioned hot apple cider recipe and boy was it good!
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I love apple cider anything- a cup of hot apple cider, apple cider desserts like donuts or muffins, anything. So when the weather started to cool and the fall treats were on my mind, I started thinking about apple cider.
Last year I made and shared the recipe for a slow cooker apple cider. It is great but this year I really wanted to get closer to an old fashioned, traditional apple cider. For this a cider press would be used. Believe me, I tried to bat my eyes a little and get my husband to build me a cider press but with the barn work, farmhouse building, and new animals on the farm he wasn’t budging. Fair enough.
So what is a girl to do without a cider press? Make do or do without my friends! When it comes to apple cider, I’d rather not do without.
Rather than harp on the fact that it is not a pressed cider I decided we would just blend those apples and still enjoy a hot cup of apple cider. And one day my time will come to stand in my apple orchard, dump my freshly picked from the tree apples into my cider press and make literal farm fresh apple cider. Until then, this old fashioned apple cider recipe will be just fine. Honestly, it is not much different. No added ingredients. Just raw, unfiltered apple cider. The only difference is the equipment used as far as I understand. I looked up the difference and that is all I found so I would say we are pretty darn close!
This same day I sat at my farmhouse table that my grandpa made years ago with my pumpkins from Arnold’s (our pumpkins got taken over by squash bugs. Any tips for organic methods for pumpkins? HELP!) working on the blog or maybe a vlog for YouTube.
I usually make a cup of black coffee or espresso like a brown sugar latte and in the summer my treat leans towards a cup of sweet tea (I am a true southern gal, what can I say?) but on this particular day I could not let that apple cider sit in the fridge. So I warmed a glass with cinnamon stick and had a wonderful cup of hot apple cider. Then I had a second cup while I finished up saving seeds from the summer garden for next year. I love fall y’all!
Old Fashioned Hot Apple Cider Recipe
Apples of any and all varieties
Cinnamon Sticks
Blender or Food Processor
Cheesecloth or Flour Sack Towel
Funnel
Mason Jar
I used three different types of apples but this can be made with all the same variety or even more than three. I used Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Gala apples about 5 lbs but this works the same no matter the amount of apples you have! This made about a 1/2 gallon.
I started by chopping up my apples so they blend easier. I removed the cores but you probably would not have to. I froze mine to make apple pie jam or maybe a Christmas jam.
I let the blender run for a bit to get as much juice out and get it nice and thin. Then I dumped the mix into a colander to strain on its own for a bit while I continued to blend the rest of the apples. This took about three different batches to blend them all so I just dumped each batch into the colander to sit.
Check out that cheesy smile! My little Ila Dawn loves to help in the kitchen. Mama loves it too!
Once everything was blended, I finished straining the juice through a flour sack towel. This worked really well and left just enough pulp.
Last I just added it all into a half gallon jar and stored in the fridge until ready to use.
Now keep in mind I like a little spice flavor but nothing crazy. There is a local couple that has a really great canning and jam business that comes to our WMU Holiday Market at our church every year. We have vendors that set up for selling. They have a delicious apple cider you can buy by the quart. It honestly tastes like she drops a bag of red hot candies in each quart (she doesn’t, I read the label lol). I love to buy just one quart as a special treat.
It is really good but I am a simple gal and only want something that strong on occasion. So for my homemade I kept it really simple by heating my hot apple cider on the stove with a cinnamon stick. Add a few if you want a stronger flavor. You could also add in nutmeg, cloves and even a splash of vanilla. This alone was sweet enough for me (and I like everything really sweet) but you could add a splash of maple syrup too and it would add such a good flavor! It all would be delicious!
I left my main batch of apple cider with no added spice or flavor so that my family could adjust it for themselves when warmed. This could also be done when canning. I also wanted to bake a few treats with it so keeping it plain was a great way to use one batch for several things.
Now this apple cider has me ready for my apple trees to start producing and to grow our orchard even more!
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