Winter Busting, Pineapple Hot Toddy

Feeling poorly?  Drag yourself out of bed (it only takes 10 minutes, I promise!) and whizz this up.

It has all sorts of things that are good for you, including my go to superfood! Rum!

Ingredients 

240gm tinned pineapple in natural juice

2 shots Coconut Rum

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste

100gm coconut cream

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Ground cinnamon for garnish

Method

Add tinned pineapple to your TM bowl and blitz on speed 8 for 20 seconds.

Scrap down sides and add rum. 

Heat at 85 degrees on speed 4 for 4 minutes.

Add honey, cinnamon stick, turmeric, vanilla paste and coconut cream.

Mix at 60 degrees, speed 1 for 5 minutes.

Pour into an insulated cup or mug and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.

This serves 2. 

Amaretto White Hot Chocolate

The wait is over. It's time to dive into your batch of Homemade Amretto and enjoy the sweet almonds goodness you created a few weeks ago.  And what better way to celebrate your patience than with a beautiful cup of Hot Chocolate?  Well I have a better way in fact! Try an Amaretto White Hot Chocolate.  It's decadent and sweet and that  little bit of booze keeps you warm from on inside!

Ingredients

120gms white chocolate pieces

250gm milk

250gm cream

80gm Amaretto

Flaked almonds and extra white chocolate for garnish

Method

Add chocolate pieces to your TM bowl and blitz on speed 7 for 10 seconds.

Scrap down the sides of your bowl and add milk, cream and Amaretto.

Heat on 90 degrees, speed 2 for 6 minutes.

In the final 30 seconds,maradi ally increase the speed to 7 to froth your Hot Chocolate.

Serve in mugs with Flaked Almonds and grated White Chocolate.

Homemade Amaretto

Homemade Liqueurs are one of the easiest and most cost effective ways of extending your cocktail supplies.  Most Liqueurs are built from a base of Vodka or Whiskey and all they require is flavouring and patience.

Amaretto, is an Italian almond flavoured liqueur.  It is delicious over ice and makes a versatile cocktail base.  Over Winter, I like to add it to Hot Chocolate, but I'll show you that later!

The secret to a good liqueur is in using a quality base.  You want a strong Vodka preferably around 30% alcohol for this version.  You will be cutting the alcohol content in the finished product, so the higher the better.

Homemade Amaretto

Ingredients 

2 cups Vodka

1 cup Water

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Vanilla Beans

2 tbsp Almond Extract

Method

Add white and brown sugar to the TM bowl with 1 cup Water.

Heat for 8 minutes, speed 3, 98 degrees.

Allow to cool and pour into a sealable glass bottle.

Add 2 cups Vodka, Vanilla beans sliced lengthways and almond extract.

And now for the hard part!  

Allow to sit for at least 1 week in a dark cupboard. It will help set the flavours.  In fact leave it longer if you have good self control, it's worth the wait. And to reward you for your patience, I will have a recipe for you using your very own Homemade Amaretto.

A note about extracts:

You can pick up a variety of natural extracts and essences from the supermarket.  If you are within easy reach of an ALDI Store, they have extracts on sale this week.  You can find a quality Almond Extract for sale on eBay here:  http://ebay.to/29ahi7f

 One of these days I might look at creating my own extracts but for now, these store bought substitutes do a great job.

Chasing Summer Strawberry Punch

In a last ditch effort to keep warm, I've escaped North for the weekend.  It's warm up here, like Winter never arrived. They are still wearing singlets!  

And in celebration, I've whipped up a jug full of Strawberry Punch. 

Ingredients 

1 punnet strawberries (you could use frozen if you can't find fresh)

1 cup Orange Juice

4 cups Raspberry Softdrink

1 cup Sodawater

1 cup Galliano

1 cup Candy Liqueur

Method

Whizz up your strawberries with soda water for 20 seconds speed 5.

Pour in remaining ingredients and mix for 15 seconds, speed 3.

Pour into a large jug with ice..

Serves 6

You can omit the alcohol for a mocktail version, I won't tell anyone.

Chasing Summer is the perfect name for this one. 

Cheesecake Martini

You've heard of deconstructed cheesecake right? Well this is exactly that, but with Vodka.  Because Vodka goes with everything!

It's a bit like licking the bowl after you put your cheesecake in the fridge to set and it could definitely be the drink you whip up in your Thermomix to make use of the leftover cheesecake filling.  Now that's a good idea.

Ingredients 

80gm cream cheese

150gm vanilla ice cream

1 shot vodka

Tiny squeeze of lemon

Milk and sugar to taste

2 Kingston biscuits to garnish

Method

Add cream cheese, ice cream, vodka and lemon juice to your TM bowl. 

Mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds.

Taste and add sugar to taste.

You can add a splash of milk to thin the texture if you prefer.

Crush a Kingston biscuit onto a plate, rim your Martini glass with the mixture that is stuck to the top of your TM lid (life hack here, a martini glass fits perfectly) and roll in biscuit crumbs.  You can pop into the freezer a few minutes to set if you like.

Garnish with half a biscuit.

Baby it's Cold Outside

Break out the flanelette sheets and bed socks, Winter is coming!  

Game of Thrones references aside, you will need something to warm your insides while binge watching the latest episodes.

So I present you with Hot, Vanilla Buttered Rum.  

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean scraped

125gm salted butter

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

To make Vanilla Butter

Mix butter, vanilla seeds, brown sugar and cinnamon in TM bowl 20 seconds speed 6.

Transfer to a jar and store in your refrigerator during winter.

To make a Vanilla Buttered Rum,

Add 1 tablespoon of your vanilla butter to a mug with 30ml of Rum.

Top up with boiling water and add a little brown sugar to taste.

Mix it all together and sip until your all toasty warm.

Now look, it's not a complex drink, it is just hot water and rum, but I think it could be both comforting and warm.  Almost like I imagine the God of Tits and Wine!

I'm Cheating on Kahlua!

I've been keeping this secret and well, i need to get it off my chest.  Be warned though, once you realise how easy it is to give into temptation, you might just consider infidelity too!

 

There are many recipes for DIY Liqueurs and they are pretty awesome, cheaper than the brand names and delicious.  They make great gifts and even better cocktails.  You can find my Thermomix Recipe for White Chocolate Liqueur here. 

 

There are a few basics that nearly everyone who buys a Thermomix makes.  Vanilla Essence or as I like to call it, Vanilla Vodka because I just can't leave it long enough to turn into essence. It's pretty easy and in fact doesn't require a Thermomix at all.  But it does require Vanilla beans.  My passport expired, but fortunately I have an awesome friend who went to Bali recently and bought home plenty of beans.  Most of the popular Thermomix pages discuss where to source vanilla beans from, so you don't have to book a holiday. (But you do deserve one!) 

 

 

 

Another popular recipe doing the rounds is Iced Coffee Syrup.  Posted by Fruityone on the Recipe Community, it lends itself perfectly to a little tweaking depending on your tastes.  I'm not a coffee snob, so instant coffee works fine for me, but if Espresso is more your style, then use that instead.  No judgement here.

 

 

 

And here's the dirty little secret, if you mix both of these together, you make Kahlua. Its seriously that easy and totally authentic.  I have perused many recipes and I can tell you that this is the real deal, hiding in plain sight and next to each other on the pantry shelf.

 

 

Here's the details......

 

Ingredients 

Vanilla Essence

750ml Vodka (medium quality stuff, about 30% proof)

10-12 whole vanilla beans

 

Iced Coffee Syrup (as per Recipe Community)

1 cup raw sugar

1 cup instantcoffee 

1 cup boiling water

 

Method

Vanilla Essence

Place your vanilla beans in your vodka.

Place in a dark place for a few weeks - months.

 

Notes:

If you already have a batch of this steeping away in your cupboard, then grab it out and use it right now. 

You can adjust your finished essence back to vanilla vodka by combining half essence and half plain vodka.

Top up your bottle of essence with more vodka and pop it back in the cupboard for next time!

 

Iced Coffee Syrup

Dissolve your coffee and sugar with a cup of boiling water in your TM bowl.

Let steep for 10 minutes.

Cook at 90 degrees for 10 minutes, speed 3.

Allow to cool.

And now for the magic

Kahlua

Into a sterilised bottle (any size), add half Vanilla Vodka and half Iced Coffe Syrup.

Give it a quick shake, you can use it straight away,  no need to set aside to infuse.

Seriously, that's it. Temptation bottled.

 

Now for a cocktail.  Have you tried my Iced Espresso Martini? How about a White Russian Milkshake?