Mulled cider pouches - a winter evening warmer

A perfect wet and windy, miserable weather kind of pick me up ... to be enjoyed when your day is over, you're ready to plop down in a comfy chair, put your feet up and just chill!

I was looking for a little extra something as gifts for friends and family and came across the idea of little bags of spices to add to warmed cider.  I absolutely adore mulled wine but have to admit I'm not a big cider fan but I'd never tried it in the mulled variety.  Now that I have, I'm a big fan.  This little pouches of warming spices can give quite a punch to that warmed cider I tell you!  They're simple to make and can be presented beautifully with a small bottle of cider to make a delightful handmade gift.

To make about 20 little pouches I used about 2 muslin squares (found in the baby aisle), about 5 long fresh cinnamon sticks (from the local health food store), 1.5 jars of star anise, about 1/2 jar of cardamom pods, a good handful of cloves (I already had a large bag of them) and some roughly crushed black peppercorns from your pepper mill (although the original recipe I found suggested whole black pepper corns).  All the spices are available from a good supermarket.

Make a paper/cardboard circular template, about 15cm in diameter and pin this to a square of muslin laid out on a clean flat surface.  Cut around the template and then use the muslin circle to fill with your spices.  You'll need a crumbled chunk of cinnamon stick, two each of star anise and cardamom pods, four cloves and a pinch of roughly crushed black peppercorns.  Using a length of bakers twine gather up the edges of the muslin to form a pouch and tie securely with thezxs twine.

You could make a few pouches and store in a pretty glass jar, or drop a couple of pouches into a clear cellophane bag  tied to the neck of a bottle of cider.

Don't forget to add instructions on how to use them:
Pour a glass of cider into a pan, add one of the mulled cider pouches and heat through.  You can either remove the pouch before pouring the warmed cider back into the glass or you can leave the pouch to brew as you drink.  The longer it brews the warmer the taste - the black pepper certainly gives the drink a bit of a zing.

The original idea was found on House to Home website.

Summer bubbly supplied by nature

So I may have chosen the wrong moment to write up this recipe as it requires warm sunny days and calm balmy evenings to fully appreciate this drink supplied by nature ... but, in all honesty, we "popped" open a bottle yesterday with the family with the rain teeming down outside, and we still enjoyed it none the less!

We have made successful elderflower champagne in the past, and also unsuccessful elderflower champagne!  I think the key is in the promptness of picking the flowers (to get more natural yeast) and the length of time it is tightly bottled before opening and enjoying.

As we'd had a bit of a flat elderflower champagne before, I decided to scour the internet for a recipe that was accompanied by encouraging comments - and here it is - The Pasty Muncher.  As usual, I tweaked it a little, mainly by including a few more elderflower heads - here's my version:

Elderflower Champagne

12 fresh elderflower heads of varying sizes
10 litres of cold water
1kg white sugar
2 lemons
4 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

Pour 10 litres of cold water into a good sized clean bucket.  Add the white sugar and stir to dissolve.  Pick 12 fresh elderflower heads (try and pick these when they are in full bloom, not as they are about to turn (ie have a few brown flowers on the head)), knock out any lurking insects and add to the bucket. Cut the two lemons in half, squeeze the juice into the bucket and then add the left over squeezed lemons too.  Finally, add the white wine vinegar.  Give it all a gentle stir and then cover with muslin or a clean tea towel and leave for 24 hours.

The best bottle to use for this type of fizz are plastic bottles that had originally been used for carbonated drinks as they will allow the pressure to build a little without the risk of bursting and throwing shattered glass everywhere.  You'll need 10 clean, sterilised one litre bottles (or equivalent).  After the 24 hours, strain the liquid through muslin (perhaps using a sterilised jug to help) into the bottles and screw the caps on.  Store the bottles in a cool place

Leave for a week to ferment (you may see some bubbles appearing).  Gently unscrew the caps should the bottles become very firm - this will release any built up gas, then re-screw caps back on again.

We found leaving the bottles for at least a month produced a much fizzier and pleasant champagne, but I see the bottles can be stored for up to a year so I guess I'll be making much more next time around.

Cheers!

Elder flower champagne

We seemed to have had an abundance of elder flowers this year, springing up in the hedgerows and also in our garden, so we took advantage and decided to make some elder flower champagne.

I remember a few years back the children in the home ed group went off round the local park picking a bucket full of elder flowers and then the group leader turned it into champagne ready for our autumn term meeting.  It was so refreshing and very drinkable that Paul and I decided to have a go ourselves.  Unfortunately our first attempt was a complete disaster.  We fermented the lemon, elder flowers and water in a metal preserving pan and, upon instructions sourced somewhere, left it for a few days to do it's yeasty thing.  By the time we came back to it, the mixture had taken on a very mouldy appearance and was therefore disposed of!

This year I sourced a very simple recipe and one, I'm pleased to say, that was successful.  We made quite a bit of drink from this recipe (good, good!) but found you really need to store it in very tight clipped glass bottles otherwise you lose the champagne bubbly fizz.  We only had one bottle like this (we'd given the others away last Christmas with blackberry vodka in them) and used kilner jars and a left over vodka bottle to store the remainder of the elder flower champagne.  Only the tight clipped glass bottle produced the fizzy drink, the others didn't do the fizz job at all!  Having said that, fizzy or not, this drink is delicious - you'll want to make lots I promise you.  Also, all recipes I've seen say to use a clean bucket which we did this time over our metal preserving pan.  Not sure if this made a difference but perhaps the metal would add a taste to the final drink?



1 gallon hot water (about 4.5 litres)
1.5 lbs white sugar
7 elderflower heads (fresh ones, not ones that are slightly turning brown)
2 thinly sliced lemons
2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Use a clean bucket to make the drink.  Add the sugar to the bucket and dissolve it in the hot water - leave until cold.  Add sliced lemons, elder flower heads and white wine vinegar.  Cover loosely with a clean tea towel and leave for 24 hours.  Strain the mixture into tight clipped glass bottles.  The drink should be ready after a fortnight and will keep, bottled, for up to a year.  Be careful when you first open the bottle, hopefully you'll have a nice fizz and get a good "pop" when it opens!