Have you noticed yet that I’m obsessed with crock pot recipes? If not, surprise! I’m obsessed with my crock pot. Seriously, this thing is amazing. It makes meal prepping simpler, I can multitask holiday baking, AND it makes my apartment smell bomb! This Cranberry Apple Cider recipe is no exception. It’s amazing! Fragrant, Christmas-y, *reasonably* healthy, and oh so delicious.
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Jump to RecipeLet’s Make the Best Cider Recipe
As I said, this is a Crock Pot cider recipe….so make sure you have a good one at home. Need one? Get my Crock Pot here then we’ll be like twins and stuff. Another super useful kitchen tool for this recipe? An immersion blender. Trust me, your life will be easier with it. Again, match me and get yours here.
Now that we’ve got those handy dandy tools, the rest is all pretty straight forward.
Why are we blending it?
Well my friend, cranberries are have some thick ass skins. Which means, if you really want the flavor in there, you’ve got to break through them. Hence the immersion blender.
So by blending it and cooking it for the additional hour you get a sweet, tangy cup of goodness rather than a sweet cup of “meh”.
Even if you don’t have an immersion blender (which fo’ real, get one here) use a blender or food processor. For God’s sake use a fork and squish up the berries for all I care, just make sure you mash, blend, or smash those bad boys.
What’s in this cider recipe?
Besides amazing-ness created by yours truly, the ingredients are pretty typical. The cider packs make it easy (and honestly I had no desire to slice and peel the 15 billion apples to make the apple part homemade). I just used the regular plain old Kroger grocery store brand cider powder and it was perfect.
The first time I made this and I decided it wasn’t Christmas-y enough which kind of defeats the purpose of a Christmas cider. So the second time I added some red pears and it helped.
But the third time….wow! I added just a half teaspoon of cardamom and oh ma gawd…it was like the perfect Hallmark Christmas morning in my mouth. When experimenting with the spices my fiance looked at me as if I had 2 heads when he saw the cardamom going in. His thoughts “cardamom and cider don’t really go together”. My response: “too late, it’s already in”. Once he tried it, he agreed, cardamom can (and should) go into a Christmas cider.
Slow Cooker Christmas Cranberry Cider
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 4 red pears
- 1 medium orange
- 2 packets apple cider powder
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ tsp cardamom
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 10 cups water
- ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients (EXCEPT THE MAPLE SYRUP) to your Crock Pot
- Cook for 5 hours on Low.
- Blend your mixture up with your immersion blender (just a bit + be careful not to splash everywhere – it's hot).
- Continue to cook on Low for another hour. Strain out the chunks with a fine mesh strainer.
- Add the maple syrup and stir.
- Serve hot or cold. Garish with some fresh orange slices, cinnamon sticks, or more cranberries.
Final Notes…
You want your family get together to be easy, simple, and *less* pressure? Make this cider. It never disappoints and makes your apartment smell like Pottery Barn with Ikea furniture, meaning it definitely smells fancier than it is. #adulting
Make it, snap it, enjoy it, and then tag me in all your bomb ass pics on Instagram @thefulfillmentpill. As regular readers know, I have a slight obsession with seeing your awesome creations and get huge pleasure from people *actually making* instead of just eating my tasty recipes.
Not sure if your food photos are up to Instagram standards? Why not sign up for my super easy, super FREE 5-day email challenge to improve your food photography for social media and beyond? You have nothing to lose and only skills to gain.
So sign up and let’s create some drool-worthy pictures together!
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