March 7, 2023

Birch Apple Crisper

By Christine Burns Rudalevige

Feature Photography by Derek Bissonnette | Styling by Catrine Kelty

This cocktail can be made with any hard apple cider you enjoy, as long as it’s at least a little bit effervescent. Adjust the amount of birch syrup and apple butter you add based on whether the cider in play is dry (more syrup) or sweet (more butter).

Print Recipe

Makes

drink

Ingredients

½ ounce apple butter
¼ ounce birch syrup
4 ounces hard cider
Crystal flute
1 tablespoon white sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; apple slices

Instructions

Run an apple slice around the rim of the flute to moisten it, then dip the flute into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Add apple butter and birch syrup to the flute, fill halfway with hard cider, and stir. Top with more cider. Garnish with apple slice and serve.

About the author

Christine Burns Rudalevige

Christine is a former Editor-in-Chief of edible MAINE. She has lived in many places, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, England and France. But her professional world has consistently been grounded in just two: in journalism and in the kitchen. Throughout her 30-year writing career, she’s covered sports, politics, business and technology. But for the past 10 years after completing culinary school, she’s focused on food. Her words and recipes about eating locally and sustainably have appeared in publications from The Portland Press Herald to Fine Cooking. Her award-winning cookbook Green Plate Special was published in 2017. When she’s not laboring over a cutting board or a keyboard, she’s learning from her two semi-adult children, a community of food-minded friends, hundreds of productive Maine farmers, thousands of innovative chefs near and far, and her 30,000 honeybees.