New Year’s Eve is closing in, so we’d like to share some delicious cocktail recipes with you. Almost any of these can work if you take out the hard stuff, so they’re all worth a try. It’s nice to have something pretty as well as tasty to sip on this time of year.
Jenna Lambert’s Holiday Sangria
2 oz. apple brandy (I prefer Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy)
2 oz. prosecco (Ruffino does the trick)
1 oz. cranberry juice
1 dash cinnamon
chopped green apples
fresh cranberries
fresh rosemary sprigs
1 dash orange bitters
Combine ingredients in an oversize wine glass filled with ice. For a lighter and less boozy drink, top with soda water. These proportions are measured for one cocktail, but this sangria is best served in a pitcher or punch bowl, to all of your closest friends. To keep the evanescence of the prosecco intact when making this in a large batch, place a cold metal spoon in the pitcher as well. Enjoy and be merry!
Bailey’s Peppermint Cream
This drink is relatively low-alcohol. It would make a nice midday warm-up after sledding, if we ever get snow. And Bailey’s is a nice thing to have on hand around the holidays, to spice up a coffee, top off a martini, or just go ahead and bake a Bailey’s bundt cake.
For the Bailey’s Peppermint Cream, pour into a coffee mug:
1 1/2 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream
4 oz. hot chocolate
Top with:
Fresh whipped cream
Crushed candy cane
The Sparkling Ginger Daisy
1 oz. Plymouth gin
1 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. grenadine
Brut Champagne
Combine the gin, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, and grenadine in an ice-filled mixing glass. Stir until well chilled, and strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne.
Old-Fashioned
I think an Old-Fashioned should be sipped under a blanket, in front of a raging fire with a good book in the other hand. It’s a simple, to-the-point, old-fashioned cocktail with no frills.
1 sugar cube
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 Tbsp. club soda
2 oz. bourbon
1 thin strip of lemon peel
In a rocks glass, combine the sugar cube, bitters, and club soda. Muddle to a paste. Stir in the bourbon. Add ice, and garnish with a two-inch strip of lemon peel.
Peppermint White Russian at Harbor View Hotel
¾ oz. Kahlúa
¾ oz. vodka
¾ oz. peppermint schnapps
half-and-half
ice
crushed candy canes for garnish
Shake all the ingredients but the ice until incorporated, and pour over ice. Garnish with crushed candy canes.
