Another Newbie question - Very strong/sour tasting cider

About a month and a half ago I started making some cider with some apples I was given. They probably weren't the best variety for making cider (quite sour tasting - not really eaters) but the promise of free alcohol was a powerful force.

My 'problem' is that I think I added too much sugar in the primary and I've ended up with what is probably considered an apple wine rather than a cider. After testing and tasting I've ended up with an alcoholic tasting (like ethanol) 11-12% beast with a puckering sour taste. It literally made me slap the work top when I tasted it the first time.

I'm planning on backsweetening with sweetener, but I've heard of doing this with shop bought juice or concentrate too. This could make it taste better and bring down the alcohol content to something more drinkable. Although I guess it would have to be a still cider with that method.

Basically, I'm asking is there anything I can do about the sour and alcoholic taste to my cider?

Thanks for your time!

if you can wait, age will take care of those problems pretty well, but i would guess it's gonna need a year to mellow. another idea would be to induce a malolactic fermentation, you can get mlf cultures at a winemaking shop, that will take out some of the malic acid bite and make it a bit more... buttery?

Thanks for the info, dinnerstick,

I'm not very patient, and I was hoping it would be ready for my birthday (next month). How long does MLF take? Is this my only option?

i have never added an mlf culture, only had spontaneous mlf in wild yeast ciders. so i don't know how long it takes after you pitch the bacteria.
you can use your strategy of adding juice or concentrate until it tastes good, bottling and letting it carb up, and then heat pasteurizing the bottles. this is tried and tested but also dangerous if you get it wrong, too much carbonation pressure before you cook them and they explode right then and there, don't cook them through and they explode a week later. if you have space you can sweeten, bottle until carbed, and store in the fridge, and if you don't mind plastic it's much safer and easier to gauge the pressure.
there is a lot of information here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

Really helpful! Thanks!