Cinnamon Apple Syrup; Or, Upcycling Apple Peels

I've mentioned how much I love apples, and how much my day was made when I brought home 4 pecks of apples (McIntosh, Jonathon, Golden Delicious and Braeburn). Recently, two of those pecks went into a giant pot to be cooked down into a delicious applesauce, which was processed and resulted in 5 quarts of homemade applesauce taking their proud place in my pantry. More recently, another peck became some heavenly apple butter. The by-product of this process, of course, was a rather large pile of apple peels. In the spirit of not letting such a useful by-product go to waste (perhaps the apple version of "everything but the squeal"), I cobbled together a recipe to make use of the perfectly good peels. This tasty and apple-y syrup can be used on top of waffles, pancakes, ice cream, baked apples, or whatever you might like to eat with syrup. I had apple cider around, so added that in to give even more apple flavor, but it's not necessary. Also, although I was going through a rather large quantity of peels, this recipe can be scaled down easily if you didn't go apple crazy. You can add the cores to the steeping step too; just make sure to cut off the stems and the bottom end. If a sweet syrup isn't your thing, there are other ways you can use peels, like this, or this.

Note on the apple peels: if you're buying non-organic apples from the grocery store, make sure that you wash them thoroughly if you wish to use the peels. They're covered with pesticides and wax, which you probably don't want to eat. Mine were directly from an orchard that uses minimal pesticides, so a quick soak in vinegar and water was sufficient.)

Ingredients

4 quarts (16 cups) apple peels

6 cups brown sugar

2 quarts (8 cups) water

4 cups apple cider (or more water)

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon or 2 sticks

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup lemon juice (if canning)

Directions

1. Combine apple peels, water, cider, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a 6 quart slow cooker. Turn cooker on high, and allow mixture to steep for 3-4 hours.

2. Place a double thickness of cheesecloth in a colander, and place over a 6 quart stockpot. Pour (or scoop, if your slow cooker bowl is not removable) contents into colander, gently pressing to extract the liquid. Discard peels, or come up with yet another use for them!

3. Take strained liquid and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn heat down and allow to simmer, with stirring, until liquid is a thin syrup (reduced to about half the liquid volume). This may take 2 or more hours.

4. At this point, syrup can be poured directly into jars to refrigerate, or processed. In order to process, sterilize 4 pint glass jars by boiling in a large canning pot, and ladle some of the hot liquid into a small bowl with the lids to sterilize them as well.

5. Just before pouring syrup into jars, add lemon juice and stir well. Ladle into jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe rim clean and place lids on top, screwing bands finger tight.

6. Process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes from the time a full boil is reached. After 10 minutes, turn off heat and allow jars to rest for 5 minutes in pot. Carefully remove from pot and place on a dry towel. Allow to cool, undisturbed, for 12-24 hours. After 2 hours or so, gently push down center of lids to make sure they've sealed (if they pop back, they haven't sealed).

Makes 4 pints