Apple cider recipes are the best way to keep the flavor of an autumn orchard going all season. Cider adds a mellow sweetness and a gentle tang to everything from soft muffins to a glazed pork tenderloin to a cozy cocktail. These nine recipes range from breakfast bakes to holiday dinners and drinks, and none of them is complicated or overly time-consuming. Every one has been tested in the TABLE studio and tasted by our crew.
Maybe you can’t drink any more apple cider this season. Or maybe you’re simply looking for recipes to incorporate that wonderful spiced autumn flavor. From a mouthwatering chocolate cake to a somewhat healthy cocktail with kombucha, we’ve selected a few recipes to make use of the season’s abundance of apple cider.
Apple Cider Recipes at a Glance
Cider-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Potatoes: a weeknight or Sunday dinner
Cranberry Kombucha Apple Cider Rum Punch: fall and winter gatherings or cocktail parties
Gluten-Free Whole Grain Apple Cider Layer Cake: year-round dessert
Savory Stuffed Apples with Apple Cider Reduction: a fall or winter side or light dinner
Apple Cider Negroni: a cozy fall cocktail
Apple Cider Pumpkin Bread: breakfast or a fall treat
Apple Cider Manhattan Game Day Cocktail: game day
Apple Cider Margarita: fall parties and celebrations
Vegan Apple Cider Muffins: breakfast, brunch, or a snack
Where to Find Fresh Apple Cider (and What to Look For)
The best cider for these recipes is fresh, and fall is the season to find it. Orchards, cider mills, farm stands, and farmers markets across Western Pennsylvania and other apple-growing regions press cider in the fall, and buying it there puts your money directly into the hands of the people who grew the apples. Apples, pumpkins, cranberries, and fresh herbs are all at their peak this time of year, so a single trip can stock your kitchen for most of these recipes.
Ask about pasteurization. Packaged cider that hasn’t been pasteurized has to carry a warning label, but cider sold by the glass at orchards, roadside stands, and farmers markets doesn’t have to, so ask if it’s unclear. Children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk from untreated cider. If you’re serving any of them, or making the no-cook drinks below, choose pasteurized cider.
Recipes for Celebrating National Apple Cider Day
1. Cider-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Potatoes
Best for: a weeknight dinner or a Sunday meal
A simple glaze of apple cider, brown sugar, sage, and a bay leaf, reduced until it’s thick like honey, turns pork tenderloin into a dinner that’s easy enough for a weeknight and special enough for Sunday. It roasts alongside sliced Honeycrisp apples, sweet onion, and mini purple potatoes, so it’s a good excuse to fill your basket at the farmers market.
2. Cranberry Kombucha Apple Cider Rum Punch
Best for: holiday gatherings and party pitchers
Cranberry, kombucha, apple cider, and rum come together in a colorful punch that livens up the gray of the year’s dimmest season. The layers of color and fresh, lively flavors make it a showpiece for a crowd. Plus, kombucha, so it must be healthy too?
3. Gluten-Free Whole Grain Apple Cider Layer Cake
Best for: holiday celebrations and gluten-free guests
Classic holiday spices and a hint of whiskey meet a moist apple cider cake with a dark chocolate frosting. It’s gluten-free, so it pleases a holiday crowd. The cake in our photo was festive with garnishes, but it stands on its own if you’re not feeling so ornate.
4. Savory Stuffed Apples with Apple Cider Reduction
Best for: a holiday side dish or a light dinner for one or two
This allergy-free savory stuffed apple recipe works as a side dish for your holiday dinner or as a festive standalone meal for one or two. Traditional Thanksgiving ingredients, including apples, turkey, wild rice, and lots of fresh herbs, make it nostalgic and whimsical, and a cider reduction ties it together. Your guests will feel like they’re getting extra-special treatment.
5. Apple Cider Negroni
Best for: sipping on a chilly night
This cozy, bourbon-infused twist on the classic Negroni swaps the traditional gin for bourbon and adds apple cider. The result is a smooth, pleasantly sweet, and slightly smoky cocktail that’s perfect for chilly nights.
6. Apple Cider Pumpkin Bread
Best for: breakfast, brunch, or a fall treat to share
This quick bread combines fresh pumpkin and sweet apple cider and keeps you warm with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. A topping of sliced Gala apples, brown sugar, ginger, and chopped almonds crusts perfectly on top.
7. Apple Cider Manhattan Game Day Cocktail
Best for: game day and casual get-togethers
The traditional Manhattan gets a new face when fresh apple cider balances the bourbon and winter spices. It combines whiskey, red vermouth, apple cider, fresh lemon juice, and Angostura bitters. It’s a little less potent and a lot more delicious.
8. Apple Cider Margarita
Best for: fall parties and Halloween
The refreshing tang of lime and the citrus notes of Cointreau are the perfect match for sweet apple cider. Finish it off with tequila, orange juice, and mulling spices, and you get the fall season in a glass.
9. Vegan Apple Cider Muffins
Best for: breakfast, brunch, or an afternoon snack
Soft, fluffy, and oil-free, these vegan muffins are full of chunky apples and cinnamon spice, which makes them a natural way to use the apples you bring home from a local orchard. They’re delicious fresh out of the oven and even better finished with a streusel topping.
Tips for Cooking with Apple Cider
Use plain, non-alcoholic cider. Save hard cider for cocktail hour.
Let the cider do the work in glazes and sauces. The pork tenderloin glaze and the stuffed-apple reduction both use the cider’s natural sweetness to balance savory ingredients like pork, turkey, and herbs.
Bake with it. In the muffins, cake, and pumpkin bread, cider adds moisture and a mellow apple flavor, so look for fresh apples and cider from the same farm if you can.
Balance the cocktails. In the Manhattan, cider softens the bourbon and winter spices, and in the margarita, it sweetens the lime and Cointreau.
Ingredient Notes: Cider, Gala Apples, and the Negroni
Apple cider. Fresh cider is typically unfiltered and cloudier than clear apple juice. Cider was once an American staple.
Gala apples. The Gala apple in the pumpkin bread topping came out of New Zealand. Orchardist J.H. Kidd raised it in the 1930s by crossing Kidd’s Orange Red with Golden Delicious. It surpassed Red Delicious as the most-produced apple in the U.S. in 2018.
The Negroni. The most widely told story credits Count Camillo Negroni, who in Florence around 1919 asked a bartender to strengthen his Americano with gin instead of soda water. Here, bourbon and apple cider give it an autumn twist. Like many cocktail histories, the origin is debated.
National Apple Cider Day on November 18
Each year on November 18, you’ll want a jug of cider on hand for National Apple Cider Day. Any of the recipes above makes a delicious celebration.
Apple Cider Recipes FAQs
What can you make with apple cider?
You can bake with it (muffins, pumpkin bread, and layer cake), cook with it (a pork tenderloin glaze and a stuffed-apple reduction), and mix it into cocktails like a Negroni, a Manhattan, and a margarita.
When is National Apple Cider Day?
National Apple Cider Day is November 18.
Should I use pasteurized or unpasteurized cider?
Ask when you buy. Packaged unpasteurized cider carries a warning label, but cider sold by the glass at orchards and farmers markets may not. If you’re serving children, older adults, pregnant women, or people with weakened immune systems, choose pasteurized cider.
Are these recipes hard or time-consuming?
No. Every recipe here has been tested in the TABLE studio and tasted by our crew, and none is complicated or overly time-consuming.
Where can I buy fresh apple cider?
Look for it at local orchards, cider mills, farm stands, and farmers markets in the fall.
More apple ideas: browse our Apple Recipes to Embrace the Fall Season, TABLE’s Fall recipes, Cocktails, and Desserts.
About the Author
Jordan Snowden is a Pittsburgh-based writer and editor and a former Online Editor at TABLE Magazine. She writes The Plot Thickens, a monthly crime fiction column for The Seattle Times, and contributes to Pittsburgh City Paper, where she previously served as Music Editor. She is also Marketing Specialist at Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures and shares her reading life on Instagram as @jord_reads_books.
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