Fresh apple cider. My tounge tingles at the thought. Who doesn’t enjoy a glass of the sweet treat at least once during autumn? It’s fall in a cup, I know I say that all the time but it truly is!
Apples have held a dear place in my heart for as long as I can remember. Growing up we had a Golden Delicious tree. I was the one that got picked to climb the high branches to get the ones close to the top. What kid doesn’t like to scale a tree bare foot? My parent’s dreamed of moving back to the Mid-west and having a small Jonathan orchard. Life changed and that never happened but my dad being a sweet heart let me pick out a new apple tree for our back yard in the city. Being a Fuji lover, that’s what I picked. The Golden Delicious tree long since died, my Fuji is still there, sadly this year it decided not to bare fruit. (I’m blaming the drought, hopefully next year it will be in full force again.)
Then there was the year we hauled a bunch of apples home from “Apple Hill” an amazing place in Northern California to make apple butter and fresh apple cider. My parents have a thing for antiques, so they happened to have a cider press sitting around, because who doesn’t? They were awesome about hands on learning activities. Being the little girl I was, I put on my 1800’s dress and helped make cider like they did in the “old days”. It was so much fun for the kids but a lot of work. From there on out I think they bought cider at the store.
A couple of years ago while living in Mexico I started to miss “Apple Hill”, apple cider and fall in general. I had apples on hand from Azure Standard so I decided to try my hand at making my own apple cider. As long as you have a good blender like a Blendtec it is very easy to make a bit of fresh apple cider at home. If you are making a huge batch you might want to use a Champion Juicer or make it in your washing machine like this family did.
Apple juice from the store doesn’t hold a candle to fresh apple cider made from home. You can also make a spicy hot apple cider or ferment the cider for a sparkling version. Thanksgiving is never complete for me without sparking cider. Making your own apple cider requires only 4 things, apples, a bit of water, a blender/juicer and a tea towel. Are you ready to give it a try and learn how to make fresh apple cider? If you decide to use a juicer follow the instructions that came with it.
How to Make Fresh Apple Cider in a Blender
Ingredients
- Apples
- Water
- Blender/Juicer
- Tea Towel or Cheese Cloth
Instructions
- Cut each apple into 8 slices, removing core if desired.
- Add 1/4 of a cup of water to the bottom of the blender.
- Add enough apple slices to fill the blender. 2/3 of the way full.
- Blend on high until the apples are completely smooth.
- Pour the apple puree into a cheese cloth/tea towel lined pitcher or bowl.
- Twist the cloth and squeeze the liquid out.
- You can bake with the pulp, discard it, feed it to your chickens or compost it.
- Pour the cider into glass jars and save in the fridge for up to a week.
What a great idea – I just got a 40 lb box of apples from Azure Standard this week and planned to make lots of applesauce for my kiddos but may do this too. We moved to East Texas 18 months ago from Northern California – where, yes, we had visited Apple Hill on several occasions since we lived less than an hour away. There is no place quite like Apple Hill in East TX unfortunately.
Azure is a always a second best to Apple Hill!
I will have to try this as it is a favorite drink around here.
I love this idea! I might have to do this so I can make some homemade apple cider vinegar.
If you do I’d love to know how your vinegar turns out! My vinegar spoiled the last time I tried.
This looks and sounds delicious, Katie – pinned!
Thanks Dena!