Hello Magical Person!
How are you doing? I am currently doing well! The day I am writing this on has been a productive and chilly Friday. Because it is a colder fall day today, I decided today would be the perfect day to try out making my own healthy apple cider. I did not go based on a recipe or anything. I gathered my ingredients that I both knew I needed and decided I wanted and got to business. I will share my recipe here for all of you, along with my step by step video in this post. I am going to add notes throughout this post on ways to simplify this even more if you need or want that! So, let's get straight to it!
To start, go ahead and give your apples a good washing. You can choose to dry them off after or not. I dried mine some but not a whole lot. After doing this, go ahead and begin cutting your apples. You can cut them in whatever way suits you best and the juicer you own if you do happen to have one! If you do not have a juicer, I will give some tips and or ideas at the end with my ingredient amounts! Once you have chopped your apples, go ahead and get your juicer ready. When your juicer is ready to go, you can proceed and juice your apples. Next is the more laid back part!
When your apples have been washed, cut, and juiced, you are now ready to dump your beautiful and fresh apple juice into a pot. Once you've transferred your apple juice to your pot, go ahead and grab your spices! I used turmeric, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. All those good fall and winter spices! Just dump them right on into your pot full of apple juice. Proceed to put your pot of juice and spices on your stovetop, and put it on medium heat. It will stay on medium heat for about 15 minutes. During this time, you will want to go ahead and stir it occasionally. When the 15 minutes is up, take the pot off of the heat and cover it with a pot lid. Allow it to sit for another 5 minutes while covered. Once it has sat covered for the five minutes it will be time to transfer.
Now, it is time to transfer your apple cider from the pot it cooked into a container or mug(s) of your choosing! This is where it can get messy! What you will want to do is get a strainer out and put it over whatever container your cider is about to get transported to. Proceed to put the cider wherever you choose. I will say, in my video below you will notice I did not remove the foam that was on top of my juice beforehand. By all means, feel free to do so if you would prefer. Because you are doing this with real spices and fruit at home from scratch there is a risk of a texture even after straining. If by the time you have strained your cider you are still unhappy with how its texture is, go ahead, and if you have a nut milk bag try and run it through that as well. I intend to try that myself when I make this cider again. Now, here you are with your super yummy and healthy homemade apple cider!
I hope you will let me know if you give this recipe a try yourself! I was really pleased with how it came out for me. I will plan on seeing you around real soon! Until next time, go and read the recipe ingredients down below, and feel free to give this recipe a try! I will be sure to try and link a place where you can get the juicer I have, as well as, where you can get some nut milk bags for a good price, and any other tips I may have thought of!
Best wishes and lots of love,
The Inspiring Hummingbird!
Healthy Apple Cider
Made a little less than 32oz of liquid and was enough for two servings.
Ingredients:
1 tsp. Turmeric powder
Sprinkle of Black Pepper
1 tsp. Ginger powder
1 tsp. Whole Cloves
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
20 small apples (customize the number of apples based on what you can find where you live and shop.)
Instructions:
1) Wash and cut your apples.
2) Juice your apples and remove top foam if you would prefer to.
3) Transport your apple juice to a pot that is safe for a stovetop.
4) Proceed to add your spices into your apple juice.
5) Put your pot with your apple juice and spice mix onto your stove and put on medium heat. Let come to a simmer and stay on the heat for 15 minutes. Stirring occasionally. You can use this time to clean your dishes if you'd like.
6) After it has simmered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cover off of the heat for an extra 5 minutes.
7) Strain your cider into mugs or a big container and serve whenever you'd like!
8) Enjoy!
Notes: If you do not have a juicer yourself there are a couple of ways you could go about this. One way is, if you have a blender, you can put a bit of water in a blender and blend your apples and then strain that into a pot and have apple juice that way. Now, if you decided all of that is too complicated for you or your family. I believe there are brands of apple juice that are on the healthier side that you can choose. Otherwise, you can go ahead and use already made apple juice from the store and add spices to that instead. Ultimately, do what is best and easiest for you and your family.
Nut milk bags: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PQ5GYK8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1