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What better way to wash down your Christmas roasts or pudding than with some delicious festive drinks. Here are our three favourite – add cinnamon to taste!
Eggnog
4 egg yolks
50g golden caster sugar
397g can of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
100ml brandy (depending on taste – increase/decrease)
Pour sugar into a saucepan with 75ml of cold water. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and leave to chill.
Beat the yolks with the vanilla until smooth and add the condensed milk, brandy and cooled sugar syrup. Mix the ingredients well until smooth and pour into a jug and chill for at least two hours. Serve within 24 hours and over ice for best results.
Peppermint hot chocolate
A 200g bar of plain chocolate, smashed into chunks
600ml milk (semi-skimmed or skimmed is fine)
150ml pot of single or double cream
sugar to taste
A peppermint candy cane per mug of hot chocolate
Place the chocolate in a pan with the milk and gently heat over a medium heat. Stir the mixture until all the chocolate has melted. Continue heating until the milk is steaming and then remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
Divide the hot chocolate into mugs between however many partakers there are and add sugar to taste. Hang a candy cane on the edge of each mug. The hot chocolate can be stirred with the candy canes to give a lovely peppermint taste.
Appleberry mulled wine
2 x 75cl bottles of red wine (we prefer Merlot for this recipe)
1 litre of high-quality cloudy apple juice
115g caster sugar
A handful or so (about 100g) frozen mulled fruit, fruits of the forest or Black Forest fruits
1 long cinnamon stick, snapped in half (or two small sticks)
3 small red-skinned apples, sliced into rings
2 star anise
3 tablespoons of orange Curaçao or Cointreau
Tip the wine and apple juice into a large saucepan and add the sugar, cinnamon stick(s) and star anise. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Continue heating gently for another 15 minutes.
Just before serving, swirl in the Curaçao or Cointreau, add the frozen fruits and apple slices.
Christmas drinks need not always be piping hot – I doubt many of our friends in Australia would fancy a boiling mug of mulled wine on the special day! Ice can be added to the hot choc for a sumptuous Christmas milkshake and also to the wine recipe for a festive cooler!
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