Homemade Apple Cider and Applesauce

It seems like it was just last week that I was posting about how excited I was for the start of October.  Where does the time go?

So many apples!

Well, it's been about three weeks since I went apple picking.  I had more apples than I knew what to do with, so I wanted to try my hand at making my own apple cider.  I did some research online but all I was getting were posts about apple cider presses, which was something I was not about to invest in.  After much researching, I came across this article, which laid out a seemingly simple way to make apple cider.

Place the sieve over a bowl to extract the juice (back).
Reserve the pulp for applesauce!

It sounded easy enough: You core apples (you can even leave the skins on!), grind them in the blender until they turn to mush, and then pour the contents through a fine mesh sieve to extract the juice.  If you have a cheese cloth it certainly works best because you can squeeze the juice out of the pulp, but I did fine with my wire sieve and a spoon.  I then played around with the spices until I got the perfect taste and let the cider stew in my fridge for a couple of hours.  It was pretty simple and 9 apples got me 3 to 4 cups of apple cider.  So if you still have a ton of apples left over, I would certainly recommend trying your hand at making some apple cider.

Oh, and all of that pulp you made?  Throw in some of the same spices for the apple cider and you have homemade apple sauce.  How easy is that?

Homemade Apple Cider (and Applesauce)

Makes 3 to 4 cups

Ingredients

- 9 apples, cored

- 2 tsp ground cinnamon

- Dash nutmeg, allspice, and cloves

Directions

Pulverize the apples in a blender until pureed.  Pour contents into a mesh sieve over a bowl.  Let sit for about 10 minutes and use a spoon to help push the juices through.  Add the spices to the juice and store in refrigerator.  Reserve the pulp as applesauce.  

Posted by Ali B at 1:29 PM