Mulled Wine
When it comes to recipes, I usually take them more as suggestions — blueprints on which to build and improve until you ultimately perfect the recipe. I love entertaining, baking, and cooking, and my friends and family often joke that the way a dish tastes the first time I make it will inevitably have changed the next time I serve it.
However, this recipe for mulled wine (a holiday beverage staple in my home) is the exception to the above rule. I tinkered around with it, I made additions and substitutions, but after all that I decided the recipe (courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten) was perfect just as it was originally written. Cheers!
Ingredients
4 cups apple cider (*personal note: the cloudier the cider, the better!)
1 (750-ml) bottle dry red wine (DCanter recommendation: Tortoise Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2012)
1/4 cup honey
2 cinnamon sticks
1 orange, zested and juiced
4 whole cloves
3 star anise
4 oranges, peeled, for garnish
Directions
Combine the cider, wine, honey, cinnamon sticks, zest, juice, cloves, and star anise in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Pour into mugs, add an orange peel garnish to each, and serve.
Personal Note
I recommend doubling this recipe. It disappears quickly.
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