Easy Homemade Apple Cider

Did you know you can make your own apple cider using your food processor?  It's so easy, you'll never pay the big-bucks for apple cider again.   Here in Florida we don't have many apple orchards. In fact, if you know of any, please tell me.    But every October, there is an apple festival in north Georgia.  My sister went and gifted me with a bushel of apples.   These were Gala apples.  I thought they would be too mild for applesauce (another easy-peasy thing to make at home) so I tried this.  (I prefer apple cider over apple juice, but that's me)

There's no recipe per se.  But all you I-Need-A-Recipe folks, don't fret.  You don't need one.  You do, however, need a food processor and cheesecloth. Well, you don't even need cheesecloth.   I used what's called bar cloth. Walmart sells these in packs of five in the kitchen towel area.  Get those.  You'll get tons of use from that five-pack.

Here goes,

Wash the apples really well, because you're going to leave the peels on. You know those nifty little apple slicer/corer things?  Using that will help the process along quite nicely, but if you don't have one don't worry.   Just slice it the way our grandmothers, or great-grandmothers, did it.  You don't want the core and seeds, mind you.

Toss those slices into the food processor.   Don't fill it full of slices, half full is fine, otherwise you will be there a while.   I know, it seems counter-intuitive, but doing multiple half-full bowls is really quicker.  Process it until you have "mush", or as mushy as you can.

Have a large bowl, with a collander inside and the barcloth, or cheesecloth, inside the collander. Dump that mush into that.  (such technical terms)

Next, gather up the edges and give it a good squeeze to make a ball.

Quite a bit of juice is already draining.

At this point, I ladled out a taste.  Ooooh.  Heaven!

To make sure you get all the goodness (juice) extracted, place a heavy object on top of the bag of mush (those technical terms again).  I used the heaviest pot I could find.  Let that sit a few hours, or overnight if you don't have "critters".

and there you have it.  You apple cider maker, you.

Note:  This is not pasturized, so it won't keep as long as commercial stuff.  A week is fine in the frige.  But if you want to do bulk batches, you can freeze it.    Enjoy.  

How do you enjoy fall's bounty of apples?  I'd love to hear.

Fresh Apple Nut Cake

After seeing all the Fall inspired recipes around, I thought apples! I pulled out a recipe I havent made in 30 years! I remember the person who gave it to me and have no idea what they're doing today, but I have that recipe! Friends were coming over tonight for dessert and coffee so off to the grocery store I ran to get some fresh Gala apples. Right now I'm really bonkers for Braeburn (did I spell that right?!?) apples, but can't seem to get my hands on them at the grocery store lately, so Gala would have to do because personally, the McIntosh and others don't have much of a flavor these days.
There are so many apples in this cake, plus the sauce you pour over top soaks into the cake it is super-moist...and heavy! Ok, on to the recipe, right?

FRESH APPLE NUT CAKE
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups chopped apples
1 tsp salt
3 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups Wesson oil
1 tsp soda
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for one hour in ungreased 9 x 13 pan.

ICING
1/2 cup butter (one stick)
1 cup PET Milk (has to be Pet. Trust me, I've tried Carnation and others, has to be Pet!)
1 cup brown sugar

Bring to a boil and boil 3-4 minutes. Pour over WARM cake.

I try to time the icing part to when I take the cake out of the oven. With it fresh from the oven, the liquid soaks into the cake better.

Sorry, there are no pictures.