POUR YOURSELF
A
QUARANTINI
In a mid-sized pan, pour 1L of dark/organic apple juice, or apple cider. Add 2-3 cm raw ginger in thin slices. Add 1 star anise, 3 black peppercorns, 3 whole cloves, and 1 cinnamon stick (or ground). Heat the mix, but don't let it boil.
+The recipe calls for 400ml of brown rum (I used Kraken, which is nice and spicy already). I used about 200ml, halved the recipe, and ended up adding too much anise in relation, don't recommend, it becomes too licorice-y.
+You can make it right before you need it and as much as you need, or store it in the fridge.
+Optional adaptation: Start the other way around, and add all the spices to the rum, instead of the apple juice.
+My family has a wide range of likes and dislikes and I kept this in mind too much. Mom is on a low carb diet to balance her insulin levels, so I replaced apple juice with zero sugar ginger ale, served cold. My sister doesn't like warm alcoholic drinks, nor ginger. So she got plain cold spiced rum (already infused with ginger, I hoped she wouldn't notice and she didn't). Her boyfriend appreciates fine liquors, so I added a double dose of rum to his mix. In the end, the original recipe was so completely warped, that I ended up making it again for myself on December 31st, solo, the way I wanted to make it.
+CHOCOLATE COVERED
A N Y T H I N G
Ingredients
+ - One 100g bar of dark chocolate (72-85%)
+ - About 150g of cut up pieces of dried fruit
Adaptation
+ - 75g
+ - 100g of anything that tastes great with chocolate!
Needed: small wooden spoon, chopsticks.
+Cut the candied ginger, dried fruit, raisins, nuts, etc. Put a large baking sheet on your counter (place it on a tray or oven rack, so you can move it).
+Place a small, sturdy ceramic bowl inside a pan with water. Use the burner that's closest to your working area. Bring to a boil and let it simmer low. Break the chocolate into pieces and add to the bowl. Stir with a small wooden spoon until it's all evenly melted.
+Throw a couple pieces of fruit/nuts into the chocolate and make sure they're fully covered. Use chopsticks to retrieve them, let the excess drip back into the bowl. Lay the candy on the baking sheet, leave a bit of space in between. If you have any chocolate left at the end, you can drip it in a fun shape. When you're all done, place the sheet in the fridge for about 30min or until hard.
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