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I can vividly remember the first time I tasted Glögg, the delightful Swedish Christmas drink made of heated wine and other spirits, and often served with raisins and almonds sprinkled on top. When I had my first taste of this dangerously delicious hot drink, I was spending Thanksgiving on a houseboat at Utah's Lake Powell and a friend named Jane had brought along a big jug of Glögg, which we heated on the houseboat stove and sipped from coffee mugs. As soon as I tasted it, I asked her for the recipe, and it's something I've been making for holiday parties ever since. Keep reading for Jane's fabulous Glögg recipe, plus a few more versions of Glögg I found.
Before I give you the recipe, a slight warning: this drink is highly alcoholic, but so sweet and delicious that it's easy to drink down too much without realizing it. When I serve it at a party, I use little glass cups as a gentle reminder about portion control.
Jane's Glögg Recipe
1 gallon port wine
1/2 pint or 1 pint Everclear grain alcohol (in some states this will be behind the counter in liquor stores)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Spice Mixture (put in cheesecloth or a metal tea ball works well):
20 whole cloves
20 cardamom seeds, slightly crushed
5-6 sticks cinnamon, broken into pieces
Put sugar and water into large heavy pot (big enough to hold all the alcohol.) Heat a few minutes, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add spices which are inside cheesecloth bag or metal tea ball, reduce heat to a low simmer and simmer 1-2 hours, until the liquid is well infused with the flavor of the spices, and the liquid is reduced by about half. (This step can be done earlier in the day if you're making this for a party.)
Add wine and heat liquid over low heat until nearly boiling, scraping sugar off the bottom a few times. Add everclear, heat a few minutes more. Serve hot, with raising and sliced almonds sprinkled on top if desired. (This can be kept warm in a crock pot if you're making it for a party.)
In Sweden it is a tradition in some families to light the Everclear with a match when it's added to the pot, but I've never been that brave!
More Bloggers Share Recipes for Holiday Mulled Wine Drinks:
The beautiful glass of Glögg in the photo is by Dagmar from A Cat in the Kitchen, who lives in Stockholm and talks about Glögg as part of a table of Swedish foods for First Advent.
Also sounding delicious is the White Glögg from Food and Thoughts in Denmark.
Wendy from a Wee Bit of Cooking in Scotland calls her version Glögi, and it has ginger, which sounds like a nice addition.
In London The Passionate Cook offers a recipe for a delightful sounding Mulled Wine which she uses in a recipe for Foie gras and gingerbread sandwich with pear chutney and mulled wine reduction; doesn't that sound amazing?
An Irish wine blog called Sour Grapes offers Lovely P.'s Perfect Mulled Wine. This one adds juniper berries, another interesting sounding addition.
Finally, Maki in Switzerland offers her version of mulled wine called Glühwein. The new ingredients this time are lemon and bay leaves, and Maki prefers to make this with dry red wine, but she says you can also use hard cider or white wine.
Blogher Food Editor Kalyn Denny cooks a lot and blogs about it at Kalyn's Kitchen.
