Homemade Apple Cider with Honey

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Apple Cider is the one thing that I can drink that makes me feel as though I'm celebrating FALL in all it's beautiful glory. It's one of the best reasons to visit an Apple Orchard and Cider Mill! Plus the donuts, of course! 

Walking around enjoying the beautiful scenaries of fall, while enjoying a soft and delicious donut, with a warm (or cold!) cup of cider is such a amazing human feeling!

All cidars taste different from each and every cider mill. Why? Because all apples taste different and each Cidar Mill has a different recipe. The Flavors depend on which assorted types of apples you decide to use!

You can bring the cider mills to your own home with this Easy Apple Cidar Recipe. You will have your very own, talk of the town, impressive, and delicious HOMEMADE APPLE CIDER with HONEY!

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This recipe has honey for taste, sweetner, and for an easy way to keep HONEY in the body during cold weather.

Honey cures a sore throat and does so many things for the body. I LOVE anything that will allow me to get honey into my family & for myself.

It has been YEARS since I have had a sore throat. The use of Honey as much as possible in my diet keeps sore throats from popping up! It's also a natural and healthier sweetener alternative to sugar.

But, I also understand honey can be costly. You don't have to make this an expensive drink by adding a whole bunch of honey. A little honey goes a long way!

If the drink isn't sweet enough, just add some sugar either individually to your own warm cup (like a cup of tea or coffee). If you know your whole family likes sweet, then sweeten your whole batch instead.

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Don't be Intimidated by the recipe below! 

Making Apple Cider really is CRAZY SIMPLE!! Seriously! You literally just dump all these ingredients into a pot, fill the pot with water and boil! 

Once you get it boiling, just turn the heat down and let it simmer on your stove top for a couple of hours. You will have MAGIC!

MAGIC = all of a sudden your house smells CRAZY AMAZING and your about to enjoy you very own FRESH Apple Cider!

After everything has boiled, you just smash all the stuff in the pot (get out some stress!) till all the fruit becomes MUSH.

Let that sit there and simmer in the pot again for another hour to get as much of that apple flavor in all of that water!

Then SQUISH all the juice from that MUSH you did (I use a stock pot with a strainer to make this the easiest thing ever!).

Get rid of the Mush, and your left with something EXTRAORDINARY!!! :-D

Your Homemade Apple Cider will be the talk of the season! Especially, if you start mixing up your apple flavors!

Feel free to test out all the different apples in the world! Find out by experimenting if you like less spice, more spice, less sweet, more sweet, served hot or cold!

Whatever you choose to do, this is the basic recipe. Once you make this once you will be a PRO! :-D

It's that Easy! So don't wait... get your ingredients below and have a wonderful Fall! Enjoy! :-)

 

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Ingredients:

12-14 Apples, your choice** (I used all Honey Crisp)

1 Orange*

1 Lemon*

4 Cinnamon Sticks*

1 Whole Nutmeg

1 Tbsp. Whole Cloves*

1 tsp. Whole Allspice*

1 Gallon Water (16- 20 Cups)

1/2 cup Honey

1/2 cup Sugar (optional)***

 

Directions:

  1. Wash all fruit under very warm water (apples, orange, and lemon)
  2. Cut all fruit into quarters. (No need to remove peels, seeds, or stems.)
  3. Place fruit in a large stock pot (with a strainer if available).  
  4. Add Spices: cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
  5. Drizzle the honey on top of everything in the pot
  6. Fill pot with enough water to cover all the fruit in the pot (about 16 cups).
  7. Bring everything in the pot to a boil over high heat uncovered, stir occasionally. 
  8. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer for 2 hours covered.
  9. After simmering for 2 hours, the fruits should be softened up. Use a potato masher* to mash the apples, orange, and lemon slices.  
  10. Cook everything again for one more hour.
  11. Pour your boiled apple cider mixture into any strainer to strain out the apple cider into a clean pitcher or pot.*  
  12. Press and squish any remaining juice left from the apple pulp by straining it through a fine-mesh strainer or a cheese cloth.*  
  13. Serve your homemade apple cider hot, warm, or cold!

 

Tips:

  • Note: If your pot doesn't allow over 10 cups of water, then add remaining water in later. The cidar mixture will be concentrated and shrink as it cooks. Dilute it with remaining cups of boiling hot water when finished till you have used the correct amount of water .
  • The sugar is optional based on how sweet you would like your cider and how sweet your apples were that you used. You could also just add another 1/2 a cup of Honey to keep from using sugar!*
  • Using different apples changes the flavor and sweetness of your cider. (example. Granny smith makes your cider tarte and needs more sugar.)
    • I use a pot that comes with a built in strainer that easily just lifts out, but you can easily pour your apple cider into any strainer to strain out the apple cider into a clean pitcher or pot directed above1.  
  • CAUTION: Before performing Step #11, apple pulp should be cooled down before handling with hands!
  • It’s ok if you get a little pulp into the drink. :-) 
  • If you don’t have a potato masher, use anything you want to mash everything in the pot!
  • Can be refrigerated for around 5-7days
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