My my my, time flies! Ive been saying for weeks that wed have our cider recipe here on the page, so here it goes, sorry that it comes too late to enjoy for the holidays, but as cold as it is out there, theres still plenty of reason to make it... This is a standard recipe description, it will change depending on which tea you use. Its a recipe for a half-gallon batch of cider for measuring purposes. We choose not to sweeten the batch, though youre certainly welcome to, Id recommend honey to complement the already robust, complex flavor of it. This batch goes over equally well hot or cold, though if you serve it some time after making it, youll want to stir or shake it, there will be some settling of the ingredients over time. You start with nine cups of water in a stock pot. Its okay to start with ten, by the time its ready some of the water will either be absorbed into the ingredients or boiled off. Bring the water to a boil. While the water is heating up, skin and slice one large apple. I like to use ambrosia apples for their great complexity and sweetness, but they dont come cheap, and as Ive said in the past, this part of the process will undergo many changes, so feel free to try your hand with different apples. Once the water is at a full roiling boil, toss in the chopped apple and four cinnamon sticks, the ones that are about 3-4 inches in length, if youre using a larger stick you can use less but I suggest breaking it into smaller pieces so it can float around better. Let that boil for five minutes. During that time, prepare any other fresh fruit you will be using for the recipe. After the five minutes is up, reduce the heat so that the batch wont overflow, add eight tablespoons of whatever tea youre going to use, four to eight tablespoons of mulling spices depending on how spicy you want the batch, whatever sweetener you wish to use, and the additional fruit. Cover and stir occasionally, let it all cook together for at least 20 minutes. I find that any additional time does not significantly add to the flavor of the batch, so its okay to finish it there. Take the stock pot and pour its contents into a serving vessel that can handle near-boiling temperatures, using a strainer or cheese cloth to prevent the tea, fruit and spices from falling into the vessels. Its ready to serve right away, though for iced cider, Id refrigerate it rather than pour it over ice while its hot. As an added bonus, the fresh fruit you used in this concoction make for a warming, delicious snack, just be sure to rinse or dust off any tea or spices that may have stuck to them. Ill get more detailed as we come up with new recipes. So far weve tried this with our Autumn Pear, using pears as the additional fruit and eight tbsp of mulling spices, Id probably want to reduce the spice content in future batches. Our Peach Apricot, surprise surprise, turned out to be a magnificent batch, embracing the spices well while remaining light and flexible. For the Peach Apricot batch we used four tbsp of mulling spices, a perfect amount, and half a chopped pineapple. I think either peach or apricot would work, but is currently out of season, though for a summer cider concept Im excited to try that! The last batch we did was a Hawaiian Pineapple, with 4 tbsp mulling spices and half a pineapple, which turned out very nice as well. Cant wait for this weekend, when Im going to put our Cran-Raspberry White to the test!
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 22:30:53 +0000
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