Slow Cooker Apple Cider

Slow Cooker Apple Cider

Ingredients:

• 9 medium apples, assorted types (I used a mixture of red, yellow and green apples)
• 1 orange
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 whole nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons whole cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (optional)
• 12-16 cups water
• 1/3 - 2/3 cup brown sugar (or your desired sweetener*)

Directions:

Wash apples and the orange, and then roughly cut into quarters. (Don't worry about removing peels, seeds, or stems.)  Place in the bowl of your slow cooker.  Add cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.  Cover with water, filling the slow cooker until it is nearly full. (I left about 1/2 inch of space at the top of my pot.) Cook on high heat for 3-4 hours, or on low heat for 6-8 hours.
About an hour before the cider is done cooking, use a potato masher (or tongs or the side of a spoon) to mash the apple and orange slices once they are soft.  Finish cooking for one more hour.
Strain out the apple cider juice into a clean pitcher or pot.  To get the maximum juice out of the apples, you can press them through a fine-mesh strainer or strain through a cheese cloth.  Stir in your desired amount of sweetener until it is dissolved.
Serve hot.
You can also transfer the cider to a heat-safe sealed container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.  Just rewarm the cider to serve.
*I like to use half brown sugar and half maple syrup for my sweetener.  But you can use any combination of brown sugar, white sugar, maple syrup, cane sugar, coconut sugar, or whatever other sweetener you might like.  Just add to taste.

 From our "Gimme some Oven"