Homemade Apple Cider
A couple of years ago I got the notion to try forest schooling. So I bought a book, we pulled out the puffy coats grandma had gotten us last Christmas, and set out to explore the great outdoors.
Icy wind in our faces and frozen tears on my toddler’s cheeks, we were doing this thang. It took about 30 minutes for everyone, including me, to be over it. It probably would have been different should we have actually gone to a forest. But on this particular winter day, I didn’t feel like doing that either. And jimmy rigging a teepee with your dad using the sticks from the half-dead tree in your suburban backyard is shockingly even less magical than it sounds.
Clearly, it was time to pivot. I flipped through the forest book looking for some nugget of inspiration to make naturists out of us yet and found just the thing. Homemade apple cider.
Instead of cooking it over a fire as intended, we came inside to simmer it in one of my favorite dutch ovens. Even though forest school didn’t work out we did get our all-time favorite apple cider recipe out of it. It’s one we make every time the leaves turn the slightest shade of red and temperatures dip below 70. Although I still haven’t tried it over a bonfire, I’m happy to report we do have a much better relationship with nature now.
I hope this brings you and your loved ones closer together this season. Whether in the kitchen with little hands helping you cut apples or snuggled up on the couch, steaming mugs in hand. Blessings to you dear friends.
Easy Homemade Apple Cider
Ingredients
- 32 oz Organic Apple Juice (1 liter)
- 4 Cloves use 1/8 tsp powdered or skip if you don't have any
- 2 Cinnamon Sticks
- 2 Oranges Cara Cara's are my favorite for this but you can sub 1/2 cup orange juice in a pinch.
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except oranges in a pot.
- Cut oranges in half and squeeze the juice into the apple mixture.
- Place peels in the pot and simmer for 10-30 minutes.
- Remove orange peels to prevent a rine flavor. The cider can continue simmering or be taken off.
- Refrigerate any leftovers.
Looking for more fall recipes? Check out my perfect pumpkin muffins here.
