Homemade Apple Cider Recipe - Food.com (2024)

24

Community Pick

Submitted by crazy crafter

"When I was growing up my mom made a version of this every fall to help get rid of the apples that were starting to wrinkle and weren't bad just yet and she'd make apple jelly with the juice too. I hope you like it as much as my family did and now my neighbors do :)"

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Ready In:
3hrs 15mins

Ingredients:
4
Yields:

1/2 gallon

Serves:
6-8

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ingredients

  • 8 -10 apples (I used gala for a less tart or intense taste)
  • 12 - 1 cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons cinnamon (or 4 cinnamon sticks)
  • 4 tablespoons allspice

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directions

  • Quarter your apples (no need to remove peel or seeds).
  • In a large stock pot add your apples and fill with water--just enough to cover the apples.
  • Add your sugar.
  • Wrap your cinnamon and allspice in a doubled up cheese cloth and tie, and add this to the apples and water.
  • Boil on high for one hour (uncovered) checking on it frequently.
  • Turn down heat and let simmer for two hours (covered).
  • Take off the heat after two hours of simmering and let cool.
  • Remove spices and mash up the apples to a pulp like consistency (a potato masher works well for this).
  • Once cool pour into a strainer over a large bowl. When most of the juice has drained away, put the remainder of the pulp into a doubled up cheese cloth and squeeze over the bowl until no more juice comes out.
  • (At this point you can either restrain the juice to get out the little bits of pulp that remain with a cheese cloth draped inside the strainer to catch them or just leave it like I do).
  • You can store in an air tight container in your refrigerator for up to a week or you can freeze it for later use if you like.
  • Reheat in the microwave or on the stove and enjoy either plain or you can add caramel syrup or caramels, whipped topping with cinnamon or, like my neighbors did if you like it really sweet, with marshmallows or marshmallow creme.
  • also you could make this a diabetic recipe by omitting the sugar and adding diabetic sweeteners to taste in place of the sugar or none at all.

Questions & Replies

Homemade Apple Cider Recipe - Food.com (9)

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Reviews

  1. AWESOME recipe! If you use whole spices and not ground ones, you should have no problem with the cheesecloth. My entire house smells delicious; this is a perfect thing to make on a fall day when you've got company coming!

    Sharonanneo

  2. this recipe would've gotten 5+ stars from me except the whole spices in the cheese cloth threw me off. After fighting with the cheese cloth and finally deciding that the cinnamon and allspice would just end up falling through the cloth anyway, i decided to just dump all the spices in. I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 dark brown sugar. added nutmeg and cloves. after dumping the mixture through a strainer i had to taste the result and it tasted wonderful. i gave my DH a small taste and he said it was thicker then he expected but i think that came from all the spices being added in. It is absolutely wonderful and i havent even strained the apples through cheesecloth yet. thanks for a great simple (besides the cheesecloth thing) recipe. I fell in love with apple cider all over again:)

    crmsonbuterfly

  3. Oops, tried this last year and forgot to review it. Actually I made two (3 gallon) batches, one with the spices (I put them in a tea ball instead of cheesecloth), and one without the spices. I used a mix of macintosh and delicious apples with a few winesap apples for extra flavor, since they are "sweet" apples I cut the sugar back to 1/3 cup and that was plenty sweet for us. I also substituted some store bought unsweetened apple juice I wanted to use up for the water. I did find the spiced batch to be a bit too spicy - slightly overpowering the apple flavor - I think next time I will cut back the amount of spices a bit (personal preference).<br/>When I made the unspiced batch, I made it expressly for the purpose of "jacking" it (aka making apple jack which is a alcohol based brandy type of beverage). It made a very nice hard cider which was enjoyed by all. The left over hard cider was then "jacked" over the winter. The apple jack turned out well too. :-)<br/><br/>I ran my stick blender through the leftover apple solids to finely chop the skins (I had removed the seeds before cooking the apples) and added the solids to a pumpkin quick bread batter I was making.

    Dee514

  4. Made this last year and will definately be making again in the next few weeks. Took it to the Falloween Festival and shared with my large family and they all loved it. I used brown sugar for that caramel flavor and sweetened it to taste, and I just dumped the spices in since I don't have cheese cloth. I like how less sugar keeps the tartness which is the best part. Made the house smell fantastic and made me fall in love with cider all over again. My mom is asking for it again this year so she can keep some at home for the winter months. I will be too! Thanks.

    Trish Za Dish

  5. I've made this recipe three times now. Each with different types of apples and varying amounts. Sometimes this comes out a little weak if you add smaller apples, but overall I'd say this is a hit. Each of my three roommates and the guests attending our Fall party complimented me on it's taste.

    jjdrew99

see 19 more reviews

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Tweaks

  1. Mixed my apples! 4.5 Gala (I eat while I cook), 3 Golden Apple, 2.5 Granny Smith. Do Quarters - they will shrivel anyway. Also mixed Brown Sugar with Raw Sugar, and the Allspice ... all into a 1/2 Cup. Added extra cinnamon on accident, and stirred a lot, but was great.

    Patrick H.

  2. Oops, tried this last year and forgot to review it. Actually I made two (3 gallon) batches, one with the spices (I put them in a tea ball instead of cheesecloth), and one without the spices. I used a mix of macintosh and delicious apples with a few winesap apples for extra flavor, since they are "sweet" apples I cut the sugar back to 1/3 cup and that was plenty sweet for us. I also substituted some store bought unsweetened apple juice I wanted to use up for the water. I did find the spiced batch to be a bit too spicy - slightly overpowering the apple flavor - I think next time I will cut back the amount of spices a bit (personal preference).<br/>When I made the unspiced batch, I made it expressly for the purpose of "jacking" it (aka making apple jack which is a alcohol based brandy type of beverage). It made a very nice hard cider which was enjoyed by all. The left over hard cider was then "jacked" over the winter. The apple jack turned out well too. :-)<br/><br/>I ran my stick blender through the leftover apple solids to finely chop the skins (I had removed the seeds before cooking the apples) and added the solids to a pumpkin quick bread batter I was making.

    Dee514

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

crazy crafter

212

  • 16 Recipes
  • 1 Tweak

<p><span style=color: #800000;>My favorite time of year is in the fall...with all of the beautiful colors it brings along with the holidays :)</span></p><p><span style=color: #800000;>I love reading, writing, crafting &amp; jewelry making and lately I have </span><span style=color: #800000;>been designing products for sale on Zazzle at</span> <span style=color: #ff6600;>http://www.zazzle.com/shigenaka*</span><span style=color: #800000;>...very addictive and fun...the only downfall you really have to have patience to do the research involved...You can also check out some of my writings</span> <span style=color: #800000;>on</span> <span style=color: #ff6600;>Associated Content</span> <span style=color: #800000;>where I am better known as </span><span style=color: #ff6600;>C.S.Shigenaka</span></p><p><span style=color: #ff00ff;>To Everyone who has posted comments:</span></p><p><span style=color: #ff00ff;>Thank you for your response, encouragement, and ideas and for sharing your wonderful opinions on my recipes...it is much appreciated!</span></p><p><span style=color: #800000;>Sorry I haven't posted anything new as of late...that will hopefully change soon, especially come fall when my inspiration is at it's highest...thank you all for your kind comments, I do read them, every one..</span></p><p><span style=color: #800000;>I posted a new recipe today for all you sweet tooths out there who love bread pudding like I do..be sure to check it out and leave me a rating if you like it <img title=Tongue out src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif border=0 alt=Tongue out /><br /></span></p>

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Homemade Apple Cider Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

How many apples does it take to make 1 gal of cider? ›

How many apples does it take to make a gallon of cider? - It will take just a little over a peck or 36-42 medium apples to make just one gallon of cider.

What are the best apples for homemade apple cider? ›

The apple varieties that we generally find in stores and that are used for the making of modern-style ciders include McIntosh, Golden and Red Delicious, Goldrush, Honeycrisp, Cortland, Idared, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Gala, and Fuji.

How long does homemade apple cider last? ›

Apple cider will stay good in your refrigerator for 2 weeks. Be sure to let it cool down completely before storing in an airtight container and popping it in the refrigerator.

Is it cheaper to make your own apple cider? ›

A gallon of fresh apple cider at Walmart is about $4/gallon. I used about $2.50 worth of fruit and a few cents worth of spices to get 48oz. If we say it cost a total of $2.75 to make this batch of 48oz, that would come out to $7.15/gallon.

How much yeast is needed for cider? ›

Use a cider yeast and add a 5 gram sachet. If you are making a larger quantity, the whole sachet would be enough to make a full (23 litres) 5 gallons of cider. Stir it around and then add some yeast nutrient. A teaspoon is normally good for 1 gallon.

Do I need Campden tablets for cider? ›

If you want to make sure wild yeast is not participating in the fermentation, campden tablets should be added. One tablet per gallon, crushed, goes into your cider. You should then wait 24-36 hours and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

What is the best apple juice to make hard cider? ›

While some modern cider makers rely on sweet and palatable table apples such as Gala or Pink Lady, traditionally, the varieties viewed as best for hard cider have a more prominent acid and tannic character– Cox Orange Pippin, Herefordshire Redstreak, Kingston Black, and Brown Snout, to name a few.

How ripe should apples be for cider? ›

Apples grown for cider should be picked at maximal ripeness. For many varieties, especially the European cider varieties, this means waiting until the apples drop to the ground. For others, this means waiting until the flavor and sugar peaks, a point at which the apple is often soft and reeking of ripe aromas.

Do apples need to be ripe for cider? ›

Step 1: select the apples

To make the best cider, you need to ensure that the fruit is ripe. This can be done with a simple prod test – when you can leave an indentation in the skin with your thumbnail, they're ready to go. Importantly, also, the fruit needs to be clean, so as to not introduce spoilage bacteria.

Is cider healthier than apple juice? ›

Cider contains more of apples' polyphenol compounds than clear commercial apple juice. Fresh cider from cider apples may contain from two to four times the amount of these healthful compounds compared to clear commercial apple juice because of the apple varieties used and the extra processing to make clear juice.

What to do with apple pulp after making cider? ›

What to do with your apple pomace after cider making
  1. Make Ciderkin. Get more out of your apples by making this delicately sweet, traditional beverage. ...
  2. Compost the pomace. ...
  3. Feed it to your animals. ...
  4. Feed it to wildlife.
Jun 13, 2022

Is it safe to drink apple cider that has fermented? ›

After several weeks, depending on storage conditions, cider develops a slight fizz that is the result of natural fermentation. According to cider makers, many older folks like fizzy cider while younger consumers do not. Regardless, it's safe to drink, but may contain traces of alcohol.

How do you process apples for cider? ›

Ideally you will have access to an apple mill – a contraption designed to crush, chop or chew the apples into a pulp. If you're making a very small quantity of cider, you can do this by simply halving apples and popping them into a food processor, using the coarsest blade.

Do you need yeast to make cider? ›

Natural yeast in the juice will ferment the sugar to alcohol. Yeast need not be added, although it can without any problem. Some fermentation processes call for killing all the yeast in the pure cider with sulfur dioxide, waiting 24 hours and then adding wine yeast. For the homeowner this is not necessary.

Can you sell homemade apple cider? ›

In the U.S., as long as you don't sell it, every adult in your home may brew up to 100 gallons of wine, beer or cider per year. More than that, and you need a liquor license… and likely a 12-Step Program.

How many apples does it take to make 1 gallon? ›

A gallon of apple cider is made from approximately one-third of a bushel, or 36 apples.

How many apples do I need for 5 gallons of cider? ›

In my experience, a decent yield is 100 lbs of apples to make 5 gallons.

How many apples are needed for apple cider? ›

The number of apples required to make a gallon of apple cider can vary depending on several factors, such as the type of apple, its ripeness, the juicing method, and the desired sweetness and flavor of the cider. However, on average, it takes around 36 medium-sized apples to make one gallon of apple cider.

How many gallons of apple cider from a bushel of apples? ›

Good, firm cider apples can yield as much as 2.5-3 gallons of juice per bushel.

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