I made 3 batches of spiced apple cider this autumn. After the mulling spices were done with each batch, I picked out the cinnamon sticks and kept them in a container in the freezer.
To salvage these seemingly spent cinnamon sticks, I do a couple of things. First, I simmer them in about 2 cups of water, for 20 minutes, to remove the stickiness from the cider. Then I dry them on a baking sheet in the toaster oven, at a low temp, for about 30 minutes.
Now they're ready to grind into cinnamon powder to add to applesauce, oatmeal, cookies and breads.
You can use a microplane to grind cinnamon. But I like my knuckles with the skin intact, so I prefer my coffee mill. I break the cinnamon sticks into pieces,
then grind to a powder.
If there is any residual graininess, I roll my mortar and pestle around for a minute to reduce it to a fine powder.
Surprisingly, even after being used for spiced cider and then simmered in water, these cinnamon sticks are still quite aromatic. I've used this freshly ground cinnamon in oatmeal already.
I did a taste comparison between this cinnamon and that I have in a canister. My best estimate is salvaged cinnamon sticks yield about 1/2 to 2/3 the flavoring power of ground cinnamon from the canister. Not too bad!
FYI -- My 3 cinnamon sticks yielded a little over 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
