The Mulled Wine Was a Success :D
Wow. After making mulled wine for the party the kitchen still smells citrussy and a little like Christmas, which is great because it normally smells like burned toast if I have anything to do with it.
According to the smiles and vocal opinion my Mulled Wine was a success, complimented by the chocolate truffles and topped again by the Ameretto cocktail by my better half. Perhaps more surprisingly is that everybody wanted the recipes, so as promised here they are, complete with illustrations. The photography was a little rushed and I couldn’t snap everything, otherwise I would have ended up with a very messy drink / photo blog.
I’ll work the pics into the piece when I get tim, but for now a few can be found on my Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/benn99/?saved=1
Mulled Wine!
Original recipe available in the book Ultimate Christmas – ISBN 978-1-4075-0339-4
Makes 5 3/4 pints or 3.3 litres
5 Oranges
50 Cloves
4 Lemons
850 ml Water
115g Caster Sugar
2 Sticks of Cinnamon
150 ml Brandy.
2 litres red wine
We cut the recipe down and used one bottle of red wine (750ml) which made a good amount for 6 people. Adjust the other measures accordingly (of the top of my head we used 1 lemon, 1 cinnamon stick, 70ml brandy, 60g sugar,400 ml water, and I didn’t count the cloves. We used two oranges, one to grate, the other to ‘clove’)
In short, take two of the oranges and poke them full of cloves the night before. We then pared the rind off the remaining oranges and lemon, and squeezed the juice out of them. Put the rind and juice in a pan, add the water, caster sugar and cinnamon (I crushed the cinnamon to help release the flavour). Boil all of this for a few minutes and then take it off the heat. Leave it to settle for about ten minutes and use this time to prepare the other pan. Mix together the wine, brandy and sit the cloved orange in the mix. When the other pan has had it’s ten minute strain the mixture into the wine pan, squeezing the juice through the bits left in the strainer. Heat the wine mixture over a gentle flame (or electric ring) but don’t allow it to boil, a gentle simmer is fine. That’s about it really. serve hot.
The Christmas book does a much more thorough recipe but for the sake of a ‘Mulled Wine’ blog I think that’s plenty.
Amaretto Seasonal Spice!
Original recipe courtesy of Glamour Magazine, sponsored by Disaronno. www.disaronno.co.uk and http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/
For each serving you need:
50 ml Amaretto
100ml Milk
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Vanilla Pod (we substituted this for a dash of vanilla extract – not as strong but way cheaper)
1 Star Anise
1 Tbsp Caster Sugar (we found taking this down to a Tsp was much nicer)
The spices used for this recipe came from ‘Spice Corner in the Leeds Indoor Market. I absolutely recommend visiting them as it’s cheap and they give plenty of advice if needed 
Quite a simple recipe this one. Bang it all in a pan together and warm over a low heat. Again, I roughly crushed the spices up a little to help release the flavour but if you prefer a subtle hint then just leave them whole. Take care not to let the mixture boil or overheat as this may cause a skin on the milk, and nobody likes that…
Once it’s reached the desired temperature serve in heatproof glasses via a strainer, or allow to cool and serve over ice. This is really donw to personal preference but all of our guest that tried it both ways seemed to enjoy the ice version more.
Chocolate Truffles!
Original recipe courtesy of Ultimate Christmas – ISBN 978-1-4075-0339-4
225 grams / 8oz plain chocolate. Min 70% cocoa solids
175ml whipping cream
icing sugar / chopped almonds for coating
cocoa powder for coating (although I wouldn’t recommend this – very bitter)
An easy one this. Simply take the chocolate, and chop it up roughly (we used Asda cheapy fairtrade, and it was perfect). Place it in a heat proof bowl. Pour the Whipping Cream into a pan and bring it to boiling point, being careful not to burn it. Pour the cream over the chocolate, while whisking until smooth. Once done, leave it to cool for about 2 hours and go watch a crappy Christmas movie (optional, I suffered Jingle All The Way).
Once cooled, take a teaspoon of chocolate ‘stuff’ and roll it around in the icing sugar / chopped nuts until it’s a little ball. Personally we found the combination of rolling in icing sugar was just the right amount of sweetness to take the edge off the bitter chocolate. Place them on a baking tray and leave them to set in the fridge until needed.