Recipe: Hot Holiday Cider

Bring the refreshment cart home for the holidays.

From Halloween parties to Friendsgiving gatherings, Secret Santa reveals and more, this batch cider recipe will warm you up faster than one of Olaf’s warm hugs.

Hot Holiday Cider

Recipe inspired by The Unofficial Disney Parks Drink Recipe Book

Yields 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 large Granny Smith apples, cored and cubed

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• 1 tablespoon ground allspice

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 10 cups of water

• Cinnamon Sticks (for garnish)

• 3 ounces gingerbread syrup

Instructions: 

1. To a slow cooker, add apples, spices, water, and sugar. Stir to mix thoroughly.

2. Cook on high for 4 hours.

3. Turn off the heat and mash the contents with a potato masher or whisk.

4. Carefully strain the contents (you may want to wait for it to cool down slightly), into a container easily transferred into a drink pitcher. 

5. The contents will be chunky, for a more appealing consistency, strain several times through coffee filters or towels, until desired clarity is achieved and then transfer into a drink pitcher.

6. Pour around ½ ounce of gingerbread syrup into a mug or around the rim for garnish.

7. Fill the prepared cup with hot cider and top with a cinnamon stick. 

8. Enjoy!

Review:

This recipe is boyfriend-approved! We felt like the cider needed to be strained a bit more than the recipe called for, but that could be because we left it in the slow cooker for slightly longer than 4 hours. 

We did try the cider with and without the gingerbread syrup, and definitely enjoyed the tartness of the cider without the syrup. The syrup enhances the flavors of the spices and dulls the apple flavor if that’s more your jam.

There is a version of this recipe in the Unofficial Disney Parks Drinks book with vanilla syrup instead of gingerbread as well for something else to try!