Slow Cooker Wassail

This Slow Cooker Wassail is a cozy spiced apple cider punch simmered hands-off with orange, honey, and warm mulling spices for the easiest holiday drink.

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Keyword Slow Cooker Wassail

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 4

Total Time 4 10

Servings

Calories 176kcal

Author Jason Decker

Ingredients

2 quarts apple cider
1 quart orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup light brown sugar packed
¼ cup honey
5 star anise
4 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon whole cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 Granny Smith apple sliced into rounds
1 Honeycrisp apple sliced into rounds
1 navel orange sliced into rounds

Instructions

Add the apple cider, orange juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, honey, star anise, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to an 8-quart slow cooker. Stir to combine.
Add the apple and orange slices, stir them in to coat them in the liquid.
Add the lid and cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours, occasionally stirring if you can. Place the slow cooker on the warm setting and serve.

Notes

We like to use a mixture of sweet and tart apples for this, but use what you'd like.
If you are not a fan of star anise you can leave it out.
Make sure you use apple cider and not apple juice.
This can be made ahead of time, but I only recommend keeping on the warm setting for 4 hours.
Ground spices can be used in place of whole, use 1/4 teaspoon each of ground clove and allspice.
This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
Make sure that you are using a large enough slow cooker, at least a 6 quart.

Nutrition