The Clever Hack To Make Apple Juice In No Time At All

As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. With a huge range of varieties from tart and green to red and sweet, apples prove themselves to be very useful in the kitchen, being milled into apple sauce to accompany pork chops, chopped and thrown into a Waldorf salad, and of course as a filling for delicious pies.

Aside from eating the fruit by itself, one of the most common ways we encounter apples is through its juice. Intensely sweet and a bit tart, apple juice is often spotted on kid's menus in any restaurant, and they are a popular offering on supermarket shelves. However, while apple juice is a popular drink, many people don't know how to make it from fresh apples at home. You might think you need an expensive juicer to crush the hard flesh to extract its bounty, but that is not necessary. With a sturdy blender and a couple of simple ingredients, you can make fresh and delicious apple juice at a fraction of the cost.

To make apple juice without a juicer, you need some juicy red apples, some sugar, a pinch of salt, and water. Core the apple to remove all the seeds and cut the fruit into slices. Throw them into the blender and add some water, a small amount of sugar to counterbalance the tartness of the apple, and the smallest dash of salt. Blend on high until everything is liquified.

Line a very fine strainer with cheesecloth. Pour everything in the blender into the strainer and let the juice strain away from the solids. You can gather the cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice for quicker juice extraction. The result is an apple's worth of fresh, preservative-free juice. Repeat the process until you get enough juice to your liking. Experiment until you find your perfect blend. Add a dash of lemon juice, throw spices straight into the blender, or add other fruits and make a juice blend.

Aside from drinking it straight, there are numerous ways to enjoy your apple juice. You can simmer it with warm spices to make a batch of mulled cider, or if you want a more adult beverage version of apple juice, you can turn it into hard cider by fermenting it. 

Aside from juicing your apples and blending your smoothies and cocktails, your blender comes with a few hidden tricks of its own. For example, to clean the interior of the blender, simply add warm water and a tiny bit of dish soap and turn on the blender for a few moments. The blade will agitate the water and dislodge any stuck food and drink bits for you, making the rest of the cleaning process relatively painless.

How about using your blender to make a salad dressing without all the cleanup? As it turns out, the blade and bottom of the blender often fit perfectly with the opening of regular mason jars. Instead of cleaning a giant blender jar, simply fill your ingredients into a mason jar, screw the blade base on top, invert the entire thing, and set it into the blender base and blitz. Not only do you have less to clean up afterward, but using a mason jar as the blender jar means it can serve as a container for storage as well.