this mulled wine is the perfect treat to warm you up from the inside out. it easily lived up to its reputation of pure deliciousness on our girls night earlier in the week where we sat around sipping the quintessential tastes of christmas and listening to david sedaris' santaland diaries. the most perfect of evenings indeed.
glögg (mulled wine)
'since i was a little girl, i always remember a pot of this richly coloured and deliciously pungent liquid simmering on our stove around Christmas-time. i've been lucky to have such a close life with my swedish background through travels, traditions, and loving relations, and this is one of many wintertime rituals i've brought with me into my adult life. the wonderful thing about Glögg is that you can make it your own. you can add the traditional raisins (I forgot mine at the store!), or almonds (i'm allergic), or you can give an extra kick to this mulled warm drink with as much (or as little)
rum/whiskey as you like!' - carina thiedeke
:: ingredients ::
peel of one orange
1 tbsp thinly julienned ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp cardamom pods or seeds
2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 cup rum
1 cup water
1 bottle of your favourite red wine (the deeper the flavour the better)
add some chopped up raisins if you enjoy a sweeter flavour wine, or leave out for a crisp, dry taste. either way will result in pure deliciousness.
:: directions ::
in a large saucepan or deep pot, add the orange peel and all the spices, including the ginger.
pour the rum in and simmer the mixture on low for about 5 minutes - you should start to smell the delicious flavours infusing the rum.
add a cup of water and simmer on low for a additional 30 minutes- be sure that you never let the mixture boil at any point or you'll burn off all the alcohol (unless you want virgin glögg! but then it wouldn't be authentic viking drink).
once everything is smelling nice and spicy pour in your bottle of wine, give it all a good stir, and let it simmer again for at least an hour.
once your entire home is smelling like christmas, you're ready to serve your warm glögg!
you can also let it cool and bottle it in clean jars or wine bottles to keep for a later party or a gift.
some people like to strain the spices from the glögg before serving or storing it, but i personally like it nice and complex, and tend to leave everything in for a day or two for some extra flavour.
skål!
family photo by images by bethany
more of the 12 days of baking recipes can be found HERE
