Why not try making a mulled wine with apples?
We love citrus in any shape and form but does mulled wine needs it?
We tried making it with apple for a couple of reasons. One of them is curiosity. And the other one is the acidity that comes from the essential oils of the skin of the oranges. While it is a pleasure to taste oranges in your wine and rip vitamin C benefits while drinking at the same time, some might prefer trying other fruits.
This recipe will be suitable for everyone who has a sensitive stomach and loves apples.
Choosing Wine
Typically, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, zinfandel, and Gamay will make a good mulled wine drink.
We used a very inexpensive Washington red wine we purchased for a Halloween Pairing Guide photo – The Velvet Devil Merlot by Charles Smith. It seemed too sweet to our taste, but spices promised to improve our impression. If you choose a less sweet wine, you can always adjust the amount of sugar you add.
Sugar or Honey?
The quality of the sugar is also important. We used demerara sugar. If you don’t have it, the next suitable replacement would be brown sugar. Some add honey, but we don’t want to destroy the beneficial properties of the honey and therefore prefer to eat it raw.
Spice It Up
When it comes to spices, we prefer organic spices whenever we can get them. Many use cinnamon sticks without realizing that most of the cinnamon in the form of bark lacks flavor, especially if it is not simmered for an extended time. Therefore we decided to use cinnamon in a powder form.
Cooking Method Variations
How long do we simmer it?
The time you keep it on a stovetop is entirely up to you, and it depends on what flavors you want to achieve. As we mentioned above, we like to incorporate spice flavors into wine as much as possible. The spices used for this recipe will give away flavors as easily and fast as an impatient drinker would want. Warming the wine up and letting it boil for a minute will not be enough to marry the flavors. The optimal time, we think, would be sometime between 15 minutes to 35 minutes. Yes, the alcohol will evaporate, but remember, you can always add brandy to preserve the drink if you need the excuse, of course.
If you simmer it longer, you might reduce the volume of it by half or even more. We tried it, and the result tasted like liqueur. Good luck with the experiments!
Mulled Wine With Apples
Ingredients
- A bottle of red wine
- A fresh red apple, thinly sliced
- Cardamom (without pods) – 1/2 tsp
- Allspice (ground) – 1/2 tsp
- Clove – 4-6 buds
- Cinnamon (ground) – 1 tsp
- Star Anise – 2-4 pods
- Demerara sugar 5 Tbsp
Instructions
Pour wine into a non-reactive pot, add spices and sliced apple. Bring it to boiling, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add sugar.
Keep stirring to dissolve sugar and simmer for 25 minutes.
Separate wine and spices by pouring the liquid through the fine mesh strainer.
Drink hot or warm.
Enjoy!
Mulled Wine With Apples Recipe
Print ThisIngredients
- A bottle of red wine
- A fresh red apple, thinly sliced
- Cardamom (without pods) - 1/2 tsp
- Allspice (ground) - 1/2 tsp
- Clove - 4-6 buds
- Cinnamon (ground) - 1 tsp
- Star Anise - 2-4 pods
- Demerara sugar 5 Tbsp
Instructions
Pour wine into a non-reactive pot, add spices and sliced apple. Bring it to boiling, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes, and add sugar.
Keep stirring to dissolve sugar and simmer for 25 minutes.
Separate wine and spices by pouring the liquid through the fine mesh strainer.
Drink hot or warm.
Notes
Adjust spices to your liking. Especially star anise and clove. Clove tends to create strong medicinal flavor when used in large amounts. As for cardamom, you can also use it in pods.
