Hot Apple Cider Recipe by Kaleb

This past weekend we joined our friends in their new home for a dinner party/game night. (It was a blast in case you were wondering!) They moved in to a beautiful historic home that was built in the early 1900's. And in only two weeks our friends have unpacked and settled into their home; it looked as if they had lived there for years. This couple loves to entertain so whenever I ask if we need to bring anything, I usually get a response of, "Just your beautiful face!" After a short battle of me insisting we bring something, they said we could bring a beverage.

This worked out perfectly because I've been wanting to make a homemade hot apple cider and this was a great excuse. I'm not a big fan of the over-sweet-easy-to-make-heat-up-apple-juice recipe, so after doing a little research I decided to make it as simple as possible. Apples...Check. Spices...Check. Brown sugar...Check. Water...Check. A lot of other recipes call for double the amount of brown sugar, but I didn't think it was necessary. Some is necessary simply because it smoothes out the tart flavor of the apples. Also our goal with recipes is to always create as healthy and natural as possible. We hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as we did this weekend.





Ingredients
3-4 lbs. Apples (we used local and organic apples)
1 c. Brown Sugar
3 Cinnamon sticks
10 Cloves of All Spice
6 c. Water


Instructions
Step 1: Cut apples in quarters and place them in a slow cooker/crock pot. Don't worry about the seeds, stems, cloves or cinnamon sticks, they will be caught by the strainer later on.


Step 2: Add brown sugar, cinnamon sticks and all spices.


Step 3: Pour the water on top, and make sure that the sugar and spices get mixed up.

Step 4: Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Step 5: Strain through a wire mesh screen. I scoop the apples out and press them through the screen to get the maximum amount of cider, also some of the pulp gets pushed through which gives it a fuller more hardy taste.

Step 6: Share and enjoy with friends and loved ones!

Photos by Kaleb Nimz