Holiday Mulling Spice Mix

Ingredients

If you are making your own dried orange peel, start this recipe the night before you mix the spices. It's really easy to do--so give it a try!

Step 1
Wash and carefully peel 3-4 organic Navel oranges. These are best because they don't have pesticides. Also they have a thick pith so you can get a thin strip of the orange skin, and leave most of the white pith (which is bitter). Cut the orange peel into thin strips and then crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces of orange peel. Place the peel on a parchment lined baking sheet and dehydrate in a 200 degree oven for 3 hours. Sir and check occasionally as you don't want to burn the peel. After 3 hours, turn the oven off and leave the orange peel in the warm oven overnight. Done.
Step 2
Combine the rest of the spices and the dried orange peel in an airtight glass container.
Step 3
To use, take about 1/2 of the mix and place it in a heavy plastic bag. Crush the spices with a mallet. Put the crushed mix into a cheesecloth square (I double the cheesecloth) and tie to make a pillow of spices. Place in 2 quarts of apple juice or apple cider and warm slowly. For mulled wine prepare the spice pillow and place in pot with 2 bottles of a good red wine and warm slowly. Makes about 1 cup of mix.