Mulled wine - mulled wine extract - "Mulled wine a la Gaarde" - Danish Gløgg

One of my facebook friends shared his mulled wine recipe on facebook, and I though it looked very nice.So here I am sharing it too. I have halved the amount, but otherwise not changed anything about it.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ liters/quarts (2 bottles) of inexpensive red wine
  • 500 g (18 oz) sugar
  • 50 cm - 75 cm (20 inches - 30 inches) cinnamon sticks, broken and crushed into smaller pieces.
  • ½ tsp cardamom pods
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp whole allspice
  • ½ tbsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
  • ½ tsp szechuan peppercorn
  • 2 organic oranges with peel, cut into slices
  • fresh ginger, cut into slices. About 1-2 dl (1/4 - 1/2 cup).

Directions

Mix all the ingredients and let them simmer for half an hour.

Then pour the mixture into large canning jars. It should rest for at least a week, but rather a month or two.

Sieve through a cloth and pour into bottles. It will become clear in a few days. Be careful not to stir the precipitate when pouring from the bottle.

The essence should be mixed with red wine in a ratio of 1 part essence to 3 parts wine and heated to just below boiling point.

Add de-skinned, coarsely chopped almonds and a spoonful (or more) of raisins soaked in brandy. Along with the leftover soaking-brandy.

Notes

Though you can easily use an inexpensive red wine, it should still be of a reasonable quality.

You can also add an unspecified amount of snaps or brandy when serving.

This usually depends on the guests, and the weather outside…. (Snaps is a liqueur mostly like vodka. So you can use vodka instead.)

The pepper makes the drink strong, and unless your guests know that it is not due to alcohol content, the placebo effect can get get them in a good mood without the snaps/brandy :-)

Excessive boiling of the mulled wine makes the alcohol evaporate. And it does not get any hotter. So just heat it to a gentle simmer and then stop.

Traditionally, I uses raisins soaked for 12 hours in Danish Snaps as an additive for mulled wine. But this is Joneas recipe, so brandy it is.

Thanks for the recipe to Jonas Gaarde!