Hot Spiced Apple Cider

You can always make less than is called for here but this is enough for a small Thanksgiving Dinner. If you want the cider to stay hot for awhile, pour into a crock pot or coffee carafe. (Make sure you wash out the coffee smell first.)

What You’ll Need:

o    2 quarts apple cider
o    12 whole cloves
o    6 whole allspice  
o    4 three-inch cinnamon sticks

Optional: 6 slices of fresh ginger root, sliced into thin circles
Possible garnishes: navel oranges cut into circles, then cut in halves
Cinnamon sticks – 1 for each mug

What You’ll Do:

Put all the ingredients into a large soup pot. Heat over medium-high heat until the cider starts to boil; reduce (turn down) heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes or up to one hour if you need to keep it hot. Garnish and serve with a soup ladle into mugs.


o    Large soup pot or crock pot
o    Paring knife

Apple Juice vs. Apple Cider

Both apple juice and apple cider are made from pressing the juice from apples. Apple juice is pasteurized (heated to a high temperature to destroy any bacteria) and filtered, resulting in a clear juice that can sit on the supermarket shelves for months. Cider is a fresh product that that’s usually unfiltered, unprocessed, and sometimes, unpasteurized. Most likely, you’ve been to an apple orchard or farmers’ market that sells natural cider. This cider must be refrigerated and it doesn’t stay fresh long so once you bring it home, drink up! 

By: Anne Vassal 
by GL | 2/1/2016