Well friends, fall is upon us, at least in my neck of the woods. And these chilly mornings have me craving a warm and comforting drink to start my day.
Since I love apples so much, I decided that apple cider would be perfect on these cool fall mornings. But I took a look at the apple cider at our local WalMart recently, and saw that the ingredients include pasteurized apple cider and added Vitamin C. Hmm...not thrilled about that, so I wondered.... could I make a homemade version that would be healthier than the "pasteurized Vitamin C added" version?
I found a recipe online, but it wasn't as healthy as I hoped, so I experimented, tweaked, and tweaked some more, and here's the version that I came up with:
Ingredients:
Wash and quarter:
2 green apples
2 red apples
2 yellow apples
1 orange
Spices: (**can be adjusted according to tastes**)
3 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. pure maple syrup
8 whole cloves
12 cups water
Put everything into a large soup pot.
Bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer at least 2 hours. The longer you simmer it, the more flavorful it will be.
And a word of warning, friends: be prepared to be completely intoxicated by the wonderful smell of the cider boiling! ;)
This is what it looked like after 2 hours of simmering.
Strain.
And serve.
Yummy! Healthy and delicious - perfect for a cool fall morning.
Enjoy!
Sharing this recipe with JES.
