A Bitter Spirit

Day 23: (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus

The carol inspiration for today's drink is (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus by Harry Connick, Jr. Recorded for his 1993 album When My Heart Finds Christmas, the song proved to be a funky and jazzy addition to the holiday repertoire.

When we think of New Orleans (hometown of HCJ), one of the images that pops up is that of fresh pecans (often in pralines!). This pecan "milk" punch fits the bill. We added some southern bourbon just for good measure.

(It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus Cocktail
1 cup pecans
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups water
4 dates or figs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cream of coconut
1/4 cup simple syrup (if desired)
1/2 cup bourbon

Toast the pecan pieces in a skillet on the stove over medium heat until fragrant. Turn off the heat; add the cinnamon to pan and toss. After the nuts have cooled, transfer the pecans and cinnamon to a blender. Add the water, figs and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Allow to sit for 3-24 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, discarding the solids. Return the liquid to the blender and add the cream of coconut and blend until thick and frothy. Pour mixture into glass and add bourbon (and whipped cream) if desired.

Cocktail Notes
We, more or less, followed this recipe for pecan bourbon punch. Pecan milk is surprisingly easy to make and there are numerous videos online that give demonstrations of making it (or other types of milk). Straining the milk through only a fine sieve will leave some of the nut particles in the milk. Nut milk bags are available for a relatively low cost (5 bucks) that provide a much finer strain.

We used Buffalo Trace in the punch because, as a smoother bourbon, we thought it would allow the pecan flavour to come through. After we added it, the Trace brought out some of the bitterness in the nuts. In retrospect, we might have tasted a couple of other bourbons with the pecan milk to see which one went best.

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Day 22: Tennessee Christmas

The song inspiration for today's cocktail is Tennessee Christmas, written by Amy Grant and Gary Chapman. Originally recorded for Amy's 1983 A Christmas Album, it has since been recorded by several different artists.

Tennessee Christmas reminds us of homeyness and homeyness recalls holiday traditions like fruit cake. Fruit cake? Yes, fruit cake. Because we thoroughly enjoy fruit cake. Well, fruit cake done properly with lots of booze like rum and brandy. Of course, rum and brandy together harkens to the classic Between the Sheets cocktail. Similar to a Sidecar, a Between the Sheets combines brandy, rum, cointreau and lemon. For this incarnation, we decided to try and create a fruitcake-like infusion in the brandy.

Tennesse Christmas Cocktail
1 part infused brandy
1/2 part cointreau
1 part rum
1/2 part lemon juice
1/2 part spiced syrup

Place all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

First, a Pro Tip: even though you've finished the bottle, you shouldn't put it in the recycling bin until you've taken the picture; otherwise, you end up with a sticky note on a bottle of Baileys. Second, there is technically no actual fruitcake in this cocktail. The fruitcake represents the myriad of fruits and spices we infused the booze and syrup with.

Cocktail Notes
While you could just slice up a couple of pieces of fruit cake and stick it into some brandy, we decided to build an infusion from scratch. In making it, it was a dash of this and a bit of that kind of concoction but here's the best guess as to the components:
1/4 cup pecan pieces
2 Tbsp raisins
1 Tbsp dried cherries
2 prunes
peel of half an orange, whole piece (not grated)
peel of half a lemon, whole piece (not grated)

Place all the ingredients into a large container and allow to sit for at least 6 days. Strain and use.
Note: originally we had added about 6 prunes, but the infusion was way too sweet after just 3 days so we removed them. One or two will add the depth of flavour without making it too sweet.

We decided to make a spiced syrup so we could control the level of spice better than was possible in an alcohol infusion. For the syrup we used:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cinammon stick
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1 tsp nutmeg

The syrup can easily be made in the microwave by placing all the ingredients into a heat proof container (a 2 cup Pyrex measure would be perfect) and slowly heating it until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool and then strain.

Listen Along

 

Want to know how to feel old at Christmas? Look for a video of one of the favourite holiday songs of your youth and then realise that some guy has cut 30 years of the same artist performing that song together into one video. THIRTY YEARS! ZOMG.

Day 21: The Christmas Song

The inspiration for today's cocktail comes from the classic ballad, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire). It was written in 1944 by Bob Wells and Mel Torme during a blistering hot summer. Torme recalls that Bob Wells started the lyrics by trying to think of things to help him cool off (hence the opening lines). Within about 40 minutes, one of the most iconic songs of the holiday season was created.

I think someone was drinking this cocktail before we took the picture. Not much left!
Kate's note to self, keep a closer eye on Drew.

We'd been wanting to do a brown butter-washed bourbon .. and what could be tasty in brown butter? Chestnuts! For this cocktail,  we butter washed some bourbon and made an old fashioned out of it. We did two batches of bourbon, one with chestnuts sauteed and one without.

This cocktail also ushers in our final theme: Family. Because nothing makes us need a drink like family.

The Christmas Song Cocktail
 2 oz brown butter washed bourbon (we used Wild Turkey)
1/2 oz cardamom syrup
1 dropper of Apothecary's General Ambrose's bitters
orange twist

Place all the ingredients but the orange twist into a cocktail tin with ice. Stir until chilled and pour into a rocks glass with fresh ice.

Cocktail Notes
For the most part, we followed the this recipe for making the brown butter washed bourbon. The proportions seem to be about 4:1 for the bourbon and butter. Keep an eye on the butter as it can go from light brown to burnt relatively quickly. To do the chestnut brown butter, we roasted, peeled and chopped 8 chestnuts and put them into the butter as it was melting and browning.

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