Sweater weather has us dreaming about cozying up with a mug of this mulled wine. This recipe for Glühwein, aka German mulled wine, is from Day Drinking: 50 Cocktails for a Mellow Buzz by Kat Odell ($9), and it's guaranteed to become your go-to cocktail for entertaining through the holiday season. Red wine — eight bottles, to be exact — simmers with sugar, cinnamon sticks, oranges, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, lemons, and brandy until it's warm, spiced, and sweet. Can you smell it already?
This big-batch recipe makes about 40 servings, so it's ideal for entertaining, but you can easily scale down the recipe to fit your needs. Check out the full recipe below, and prepare to bookmark it immediately.
Glühwein
From Day Drinking by Kat Odell and Craig Lane of Bar Agricole, San Francisco
Notes
During the Winter, and especially when organizing holiday gatherings, mulled wine is my go-to. Not only is hot spiced wine incredibly simple to make — you’re basically dumping a bunch of ingredients into a pot and cooking — but the outcome of the drink always tastes far more complex than the effort that went into making it. Sometimes mulled wine can be a bit too sweet: The heat of the drink masks the sugar, but if you don’t finish your mug right away and the wine cools down a bit, suddenly the sweetness can wallop you. Happily, this recipe is the exception. Not too sweet, but just sweet enough, it tastes like the holidays in a glass. Note that it makes enough for a big party, but you can easily scale it down by cutting the recipe in half or even a quarter.
Ingredients
8 bottles (750 milliliters each) dry, fruity red wine, such as Pinot Noir or Beaujolais 1 1/4 cups sugar 8 cinnamon sticks 3 oranges studded with cloves, then sliced into 1/2-inch-thick wheels 30 whole cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground mace 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg Peel of 2 lemons 2 1/2 cups brandy, such as Armagnac or Cognac 1 bottle (750 milliliters) kirsch or maraschino liqueur, for servingDirections
Combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks, clove-studded orange wheels, cloves, mace, allspice, nutmeg, and lemon peel in a 9-quart stockpot over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer, 15 minutes. Add the brandy and simmer, stirring occasionally, for another 15 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve set over a large heatproof bowl, pressing the oranges with the back of a spoon to extract the juice; discard thesolids. Return the Glühwein to the pot and keep warm, over low heat. To serve, pour 1/2 ounce of the kirsch into each mug and top with 1/2 cup of the Glühwein.
Information Category Drinks, Cocktails Yield About 40 servings Average ( votes):
