Spiced Cider

Warm fruity cider, spiced with cinnamon and cloves. The perfect cold-weather drink to warm you from head to toe with mmmmmm!

Spiced cider

1 1/2 gallons (6 quarts) fresh apple cider

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 cups bottled lemonade

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cups orange juice, from bottle or carton

2 sticks cinnamon bark

8 whole cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-Combine all ingredients in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Stir until combined. Heat slowly (steep) over low to medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not allow to come to a boil as this will cause the mixture to separate.

(Alternately, you can place the ingredients in a crock-pot and heat on high for about 1 hour)

-Serve cider from a heatproof punch bowl with a ladle into individual cups or directly from the pot used to heat the cider.

-Makes 24 - 30 cup servings

PERSNICKETY NOTES:

*Allow cider to cool slightly before serving so it is not too hot to drink.

*Glam it up a bit by serving the cider in individual cups, with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top, sprinkled with cinnamon, along with a short cinnamon stick as a stirrer.

*Originally, this recipe was made with frozen cans of concentrated lemonade and orange juice - the small size. These are difficult to find now - if you can find them at all, they are the large containers. But the concentrates do give a more intense citrus punch to the mixture. If you do want to try it with the frozen lemonade and orange juice concentrates, use about 3/4 cups of the concentrate of each and add the amount of water recommended on the can.

Just a few ingredients, to create this simple version of warm apple cider!