Hot Mulled Fresh Pressed Apple Cider

Guess what happened today?  Some of my Apple Hill apples met my juicer.  Rather awesome.

Apple Week continues strong!  For Halloween, I’m making something that to me is the epitome of fall. Apple Cider. 

Apple cider doesn’t get much better than this. 

I’m taking a nice big pile of my Apple Hill apples, running them through my juicer, and then heating it with all kinds of wonderful spices.

Apples picked a few days ago.  Freshly juiced.  Whole spices.  Oh my gosh.

serves 8
12-15 apples
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 vanilla bean
1 orange rind
5 whole cloves
1 small piece nutmeg (or about 1/8 t ground)
other options: fresh ginger rounds, lemon rind, cardamom cloves, or just a nice big spoonful of pumpkin pie spice and call it a day!

To prepare the mulling spices, you just have to do a couple things!  First, scrape the beans out of the vanilla bean.  You’ll put the scraped beans and the pod in to steep with your cider.  Then take the orange rind, poke five holes in it with a paring knife, and stick the whole cloves in the rind.  It looks pretty if you’ve got a big pitcher of fresh cider with that it in, and it prevents those pesky cloves from finding their way into your mug.  I also had a little tiny bit of a whole nutmeg left that I can’t really use without grating my fingertips off.  It was perfect to fling in there.  If you don’t have one of those little guys, just use some ground nutmeg to taste. 

Juice apples.  Put freshly pressed juice and all other ingredients in a large saucepan and heat on low until steaming and fragrant. 

Wow. 

When you juice apples, you’ll get a ton of froth.  Give it a taste – you’ll either love it or hate it.  I love it with pure apple juice, but hate the froth on most juices.  Just strain it away if you don’t like it!  

If you have a holiday party of any kind, you should put all these goodies in a slow cooker or just on the stove on low for an hour or so before guests arrive.  The smell is beyond mouth-watering.  

I don’t really have anything else to say about this, and it’s really hard to type with one hand because the other has a death grip on my hot mug of yummy fall apple goodness.  Sooooo see ya!  

Oh yeah, and Happy Halloween! 

I’m not doing nutrition facts for this one . . . it’s unsweetened apple juice.  Seriously.  Just enjoy a small mug full 🙂