Swedish Christmas Glogg Recipes

SWEDISH GLOGG

Steps:

• Bring water to a boil with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and orange zest; stir in sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat, and allow to steep overnight.
• Place the raisins and almonds into a large saucepan. Strain the sugar water into the raisins, then pour in Muscatel, port, and brandy. Place over medium-high heat, and cook until hot but not simmering. Serve warm in a mug with some fruit and almonds in each cup.

OLD-FASHIONED SWEDISH GLOGG

Steps:

• Heat the port wine over medium heat until just below the simmer point in a large stockpot with a lid. Add bourbon and rum, and bring back to just below simmering. Save the bottles and their caps for storing leftover glogg.
• While the wine and liquors are heating, place the cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel onto the center of the square of cheesecloth. Gather together the edges of the cheesecloth, and tie with kitchen twine to secure.
• When mixture is very hot but not boiling, carefully light it with a long-handled match. Wearing a heatproof cooking mitt, carefully pour the sugar into the flames, and let the mixture burn for 1 minute. Put the lid on the stockpot to extinguish the flames, and turn off the heat. Let the mixture cool, covered, for about 10 minutes; add the cheesecloth bundle of spices and the raisins and almonds to the warm wine mixture and let it cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
• Strain the cooled glogg and reserve the raisins and almonds.
• To store, pour strained glogg into the bottles, recap, and keep upright in a cool dark place for up to 1 year. Refrigerate the steeped raisins and almonds in a covered bowl or jar for up to 1 year.
• To serve, pour glogg into a saucepan and warm over low-medium heat until hot but not simmering, about 5 minutes. Ladle 3 ounces of warmed glogg into a small coffee cup or small Swedish-style glogg mug, and garnish each serving with a few reserved raisins and almonds.

TRADITIONAL SWEDISH GLöGG

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Combine the wine, bourbon or vodka (if using), sugar, orange zest, raisins, cardamom pods, ginger root, cinnamon stick, and cloves into a 2- to 3-quart pot. Heat to 175 F (77 C) and let simmer for 2 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and let stand and steep for 1 hour.
• Strain to remove the fruit and spices and gently reheat the punch.
• Add a few slivered almonds and raisins to each serving glass and garnish with a slice of orange, and serve.

SWEDISH CHRISTMAS GLOGG

Steps:

• Gently simmer the red wine, port wine, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and orange peel in a large pot set over medium-low heat. Stir in the sugar, rum, and brandy. Continue simmering 5 minutes more, stirring to completely dissolve the sugar, and the mixture is steaming but not boiling.
• Mix the raisins and almonds together in a bowl.
• To serve, ladle into coffee cups or Swedish-style small glass or ceramic mugs. Garnish each cup with a spoonful of the raisin and almond mixture.

CHRISTMAS GLOGG WITH BRANDY AND PORT

Steps:

• Using metal tongs, hold the orange peel over a flame until it starts to singe and brown in spots. Put it in a large pot.
• Using the flat side of a knife or cleaver, or a rolling pin or mallet, crack and bruise the cardamom pods. Add to the pot with the orange peel. Add the wine, port, brandy, sugar, cloves and cinnamon. Gently simmer over low heat until the whole house smells like spice, about 20 minutes. Taste and add more sugar if you want it sweeter. Serve garnished with raisins and almonds if you like.

SWEDISH MULLED WINE (GLOGG)

Steps:

• Combine wines in a large saucepan. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest of citrus fruits. Squeeze fruits and add juice to wine. Tie up lemon peel, orange peel and spices in cheesecloth and add to wine. Add raisins, almonds and sugar.
• Bring wine mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer for 15 minutes, or until flavors are well blended and almonds are soft. Skim wine from time to time to remove any foam. Taste glogg and add sugar as necessary.
• Just before serving, add bitters and aquavit or vodka. Ladle glogg into mugs or cups and provide each guest a spoon for eating the raisins and almonds.