This Homemade Apple Cider Is Happiness In a Mug

I bought a bag of apples this week at Whole Foods, so what do you do when you have a whole ‘lotta apples?  Well, you make apple cider of course!  When Fall rolls around I feel more motivated to do some cooking and baking. One of the things I have been making every fall for the past 4 years is apple cider.  The recipe itself is so simple, but it is a bit time consuming.  In the end though the result is well worth it, plus it makes your home smell so incredibly good.

You will need:

6 medium sized apples quartered

6 Cups of water

1 Cinnamon stick

1 Tsp Vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean

1 Tsp orange peel

Maple syrup to taste

1 Star anise

Cloves and a dash of nutmeg (optional)

Dash of Lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

Cut up your apples into quarters, I like to remove the core and the seeds. In a large pot with 6 cups of water place the apples and add all the ingredients except the maple syrup and bring to a boil.  Let it boil over medium high heat for 30 minutes until the apples are very soft and fragrant.

After 30 minutes of vigorous boiling, turn the heat to simmer, let this slowly simmer for 2 hours.

After letting it simmer for 2 hours use a potato masher and mash up the softened apples until it looks like apple sauce. Stir and turn off the heat. Let this sit and cool down, the apples will finish releasing their flavors and bind with the spices.

Once the apple mixture is cooled down enough, remove the cinnamon sticks, cloves and anise then use a strainer or nut milk bag and strain out the pulp.  Make sure you let it cool down, otherwise you could burn yourself while trying to strain the hot apple cider mixture!

Place the juice into a glass jug and serve.  You can warm it up or drink it cool.

Serving suggestions: Serve warm and top with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

If you tried this recipe i’d love to hear what you though about it!