Homemade spiced organic apple cider

Cinnamon is pretty

Blend the apples

Press through cheesecloth

Play with the leftovers

Add some rum and enjoy

I love apple cider. It is by far one of my favorite things to make because it is so easy and so delicious. Much better than store brands. Plus, store bought apple cider tends to spice it up like crazy. I was bummed when during our trip to Woodinville Case and I went to a cider farm and their cider was pre-spiced. Maybe I should have gotten some anyway...

If you've read my earlier posts you probably get now that I am a fan of subtler flavors. Do desserts really need two cups of sugar?? I actually like tasting some of the other ingredients in my food. I even found a recipe calling for sugar in homemade cider. What?! This stuff is pretty sweet. Apples are pretty sweet. And this is coming from a girl who could eat two chocolate croissants every day. So I'm not anti-sugar or anything of the sort. I do like sweet things.

Enough with the rant. My apple cider consists of four steps:

1. Core and cube apple, no need to peel. That sounds like a pain.

2. Blend. You may need to add some water to get it going

3. Press through cheese cloth. It helps if you have two people

4. Heat with spices. I used two cinnamon sticks and cloves.

Notes:

For spices you could also add star anise (which I would have, had I had some on hand).

For the cloves I rinsed the used cheesecloth, cut off a square and made a pouch for the cloves, than tied it using a strip of the used cheesecloth.

I used five apples for two people.

Sometimes threads of the cheesecloth can get into the cider. Just run it through a fine mesh strainer.

It's awesome without rum and awesomer with it.

If my cider looks pulpy it's because I accidently let it sit on boil for an hour and it got crusty on the side. OOops. Don't do that.

Also, I used organic apples. If I wasn't I might've peeled them. (I actually I wouldn't because I'm lazy like that. But it's something to consider.)