Mulled hard cider: Black Star Farms’ own recipe

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Cherrywine.com features hard ciders from two kinds of producers: dedicated cideries who make nothing but cider, and wineries who make fruit wine but also include hard cider as an offering.

One of the latter is Black Star Farms, a winery and “agricultural destination” in northwestern lower Michigan that makes all kinds of grape wine, fruit wine, brandies, eau de vie and even a hard apple cider.

Black Star also has lodging, the Inn at Black Star Farms, and a café called The Hearth & Vine that’s run by executive chef Jonathan Dayton, whose menu changes according to what ingredients are seasonally available from the estate and local area farms.

Since, to quote a famous Christmas carol, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” here’s Black Star’s very simple recipe for a cold-weather, holiday fave: mulled hard cider:

1 bottle Black Star Farms Hard Apple Cider (any dry-tasting hard cider will work as a replacement, note: this cider comes in wine-sized 750ml bottle.)

6 oz. water

1/2 cup sugar (don’t worry, Black Star’s hard cider is semi-dry and tastes even dryer than its 6% residual sugar)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

Couple sprinkles of ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients into saucepan and give it a good stirring. Now, no more stirring! Heat gently but do not boil. All of the spices will float to the top. Skim them off, serve warmed, happy holidays!

—Todd Spencer

 

 

Categories: Restaurateur's Blog