As our days became shorter and the weather began to turn, my friends and I started to feel quite a bit of morriña throughout the past week. As a way to embrace the turn of the seasons and enjoy each other's company, on Saturday Jesse, Michelle, and Kaila hosted a cider making party! Fulfilling our nostalgic qualms, we spent the day boiling apples and eating traditional Galician dishes including fried pulpo y patatas, bocadillos, and baked tortilla.
Cooking the cider was much easier than I expected! However, it did take most of our day to complete! As soon as everyone arrived with their apples, we boiled them down with a myriad of spices and a substantial amount of sugar. After three hours, our cider was almost ready! We then went through the tedious process of straining and re-straining to remove the mushy pulp. Here is the recipe we ended up using (however we more than doubled or tripled it for the amount we made):
Homemade Apple Cider
Prep 15 minutes • Cook 3 hours 20 minutes • Ready in 7 hours 35 minutes
Ingredients
10 apples, quartered
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground allspice
Directions
Place apples in a large stockpot and add enough water cover by at least 2 inches. Stir in sugar, cinnamon, and allspice. Bring to a boil. Boil, uncovered, for 1 hour. Cover pot, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 hours.
Strain apple mixture though a fine mesh sieve. Discard solids. Drain cider again though a cheesecloth lined sieve. Refrigerate until cold.
While I enjoyed my cider hot with a small sugar donut on the side, others decided to chill their cider in the fridge and then spike it with champagne for an extra twist of seasonal fun. After a wonderful day packed with food, friends, and cider, I am ready to brave the worsening weather with a skip in my step and start this next week with my morriña under wraps...and that's the foremost in-cider information!
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