Today is my birthday. Although I stopped celebrating my age when I began feeling more like Marilyn Mason and less like Marilyn Monroe, I still enjoy celebrating the day just for the heck of it! What better way to celebrate my impending old age than share my favorite homemade cocktail with all of you lovelies. My husband and his/our best friend (basically brother) Jake, created this little concoction in their college days. Even though they were attending a Christian based college, these rebel Missouri boys from the Ozarks, knew how to whip up one heck of a pot of “moonshine”, or Apple Pie Moonshine, to be exact.
During one of our trips to Missouri, we stayed with Jake at his house in the woods. This is when the boys taught me how to cook up a pot of the “Moonshine” myself. We went out to buy the necessary booze in Jake’s little old purple truck. On the way back from the liquor store, the boys convinced me to hold on to the two bottles of Everclear. They informed me to not let the bottles hit each other even once, or the purple truck and us in it, would blow up in a fireball. I desperately clung to those bottles, ensuring they didn’t touch, as we bounced down the potholed Ozark dirt roads to get back to Jake’s house. These damn boys laughed so hard when we arrived back at the house. They lied about the possible explosion and Jake purposely hit every single bump on the way back, just to watch me panic over the bottles touching. 10 years later these two are still on my S-list! They redeem themselves in many ways but one is this “moonshine” recipe, which I now give out as Christmas presents to those on my ‘good but naughty’ list.
It’s technically a cocktail and not moonshine, but seeing as how it came about in the backwoods and was taboo at their college, I still think it should count!
Caution: this drink is a sipping drink and should be thought of as a hard liquor. You might not be able to taste the booze, but it sneaks up on you hard and quick. Drink responsibly.
Homemade Apple Pie Moonshine Recipe
Print Me!
Ingredients
- 2 Gallons Apple Juice, not from concentrate
- 1/5th Everclear Alcohol
- 1/5th Spiced Rum 151 (can be substituted from regular Spiced Rum for a lower alcohol percentage)
- 1 TBS Ground Allspice
- 1 TBS Ground Cinnamon
- 2 c. Sugar (I use Coconut Sugar)
- 4 sliced Apples
- 1 jar Cinnamon Sticks
- 24 Pint Sized Mason Jars and Lids
Instructions
Pour apple juice into a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Add allspice, cinnamon and sugar, mix until sugar is dissolved.
Once sugar is dissolved, turn heat off and let it cool completely. It is very important to make sure the cider is cool so the alcohol does not cook off!
Add all of the alcohol. Stir together. Pour mixture into mason jars, leaving 1/2 inch for head room. Add a cinnamon stick and an apple slice or two to the jar. Put on the mason jar lid and tighten loosely. Follow water bath canning instructions (explained in my previous canning post found here). Boil in water for 5-10 minutes.
Allow the alcohol and cider flavors to meld together by waiting 2-3 weeks after canning to drink.
Enjoy!
Jake, Amber (my sis-in-law) and I…before the Moonshine kicked in! Somehow all of our post Moonshine pictures were “lost”! 😉
2 comments
Adds a whole new meaning to “as American as apple pie”.
Yummy! Thanks for the recipe! Sip cautiously as it does kick-butt?