I love pumpkin pie as much as the next chick, really I do. But October has this treat written all over it.
Cider syrup does not come in a jar or a bottle (not that I know of, anyway; and even if it was, this version is probably better just because it’s homemade in your own cute little cucina). You can cook it up in about 20 minutes, your house will smell incredible, and your family will think you’ve been sneaking away for private lessons with the Barefoot Contessa.
Take out a small saucepan and put in 1/2 c sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.* Mix it up.
Next add 2 c apple cider, and if you can get it with nothing added, all the better, because the flavor will be more intense.**
Add a couple of apples, peeled and sliced as thickly or as thinly as you like. Use different varieties, if you can get them. Any will do except maybe Macintosh, which tends to plotz in the pan. Hang onto those for applesauce.
Boil, stirring, for one minute. Take it off the heat and add a pat of butter for richness. Stir. Done.
The syrup should be goopy and gorgeously aromatic. It’s great hot over pancakes or waffles, which is how I grew up eating it (Dad would make pancakes with apples in the batter and then we’d spoon this stuff over it). Put a square of hot gingerbread or hot pumpkin bread in a shallow bowl and dump some of this, cold, on top, for breakfast, and you’ll feel like you have nothing to do all day but putter around the bed-and-breakfast wearing Ugg slippers and reading House Beautiful. Or do what I do: put the syrup in a Tupperware, stick it in the fridge until it gets good and cold, then take a spoon to it. Sometimes I feel guilty doing this, knowing full well how many other worthwhile ways I could be enjoying this, but it doesn’t last long.
I just bought little local, organic Bartlett pears from the farmers’ market and am going to try them in a riff off this recipe, with cardamom, my current obsession, substituted for the cinnamon, and pear brandy, steaming hot over vanilla ice cream. Brown sugar instead of regular granulated sugar would be good too. Any other riffs you can think of? I’m all eyes.
*Saigon cinnamon, available in my local supermarket and possibly in yours, makes such a difference in pungency and fragrance that I don’t bother using any other kind of cinnamon in any of my baking. Same goes for using nutmeg in its original seed form. It’s about the size of a hazelnut, and again, can be found fairly easily. Just grab a cheese grater, or better, one of those neato microplane graters, and grate some right into your bowl. Don’t fret too much about measuring. Yes, you can use ordinary cinnamon and ground nutmeg and get decent results. But only decent.
** NJ shore residents: Don’t fool around and just head straight to Delicious Orchards.
In northern Bergen County, I just drove past what once was orchards, now becoming another darn luxury gated community. We need more of that? AAARRGH! I remember fall Saturdays, going to Tice’s or (more often) VanRiper’s for cider and fresh-out-of-the machine doughnuts—couldn’t let them get cool, too greasy, but absolutely delicious right out of the bag.
It was real cider then, too, not this pasturized stuff—if it sat in the garage too long, it would ferment, which could be good, too, if you got to it at the right time.
We still have DePiero’s and Demarest Farm, and various farmers’ markets in season (which may be local or less so, but are still way better than supermarkets).