Apple Cider

Last night I decided to try my hand at making some apple cider. Here's the recipe I semi-followed: Homemade Apple Cider

Ingredients:

• 12 or so small-to-medium-sized apples, assorted types (I only used about  9 of my Goldrush apples beacuse they were pretty big)
• 1 orange
• 1/2-1 cup brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 whole nutmeg (I skipped this)
• 1 Tbsp. whole cloves
• 1 tsp. whole allspice (I skipped  this)
  
• water to cover

Directions:
I didn't really follow her directions because I was using the crockpot. Here's what I did:

I quartered the apples and put them in the pot. You can leave the skin and seeds and  everything:

Then I added an orange, along with the cinnamon sticks and cloves:

I covered it with water, added the sugar and turned it on low. After about an hour, nothing was really happening so I turned it up to high. After 3 hours, I used my potato masher to mash everything up in the crockpot. 

Before I went to bed, I turned it back to low and set the timer for five hours. When I got up, it looked like this:

I strained everything out and got a bowlful of cider!

The verdict? Not bad, but not great. The cloves are a little too  strong and I would probably leave them out next time. I think this would be ok to drink, but would  be better to cook with. I'm thinking about making a pork tenderloin in the crockpot with some of this apple cider!

Enjoy!
--Lindsay--