Try some recipes for Swedish glogg, white glogg, mulled wine with spices and tasty snacks .
The Swedish glogg
Glogg, or Gloegg, as we call it in Sweden, is the number one drink in Christmas time! Nothing can compete with the aroma and the taste of glogg in Advent. And it is heavenly to drink a cup of glogg after being outdoors in the cold and damp weather around Christmas time. The glogg is heated in a saucepan, and kept warm in a mulled wine warmer for the real feeling. Other important details are happy and friendly people, candles and some other accessories like raisins and almonds. The special with Swedish mulled wine is that we add many spices, vodka or cognac and some sugar. I will share some very tasty glogg recipe and glogg snacks for you to try!
Some Background
The term glogg comes from the Swedish word for heat (gloedga). The word “mulled wine” is first heard of in the 1600s in Sweden. In the southern parts of Europe the practice of drinking seasoned mulled wine had been usual for a long time.
But long before that the mulled wine was usual in ancient Greece. The Romans sweetened their wine and flavoured it with spices and flowers. In the Middle Ages was spiced wine very popular in Europe. The spices were considered curative, but it could also hide the bad taste of the wine or improve a bad wine. The sanitation was poor and many believed that it was healthier to drink mulled wine than to drink water! And maybe it was! At least it was heated, and wine in moderation is said to reduce risk for e.g. heart disease.
In the late 1800s, mulled wine became more widespread as a Swedish Christmas tradition. And now days we drink about 7 million liters of mulled wine or glogg each year!
In all European countries there is a local version if mulled wine. The difference between the mulled wine is primarily the taste.
Here are some recipes for Swedish glogg! Some are usual, and some are a bit different. Even if we call it glogg, I will call them mulled wine in the recipes! Try them out and enjoy!
Classic Mulled Wine
Ingredients:
0,75 liters of red wine
2 cinnamon sticks
8 clove
12 pcs cardamom sees
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
almost 1/4 cup vodka (1,5 dl)
Raisins and almond
Add a few raisins and blanched almonds in mugs or refractory glass and set a side.
Heat the wine and spices gently in a pot, stir the sugar until it dissolves, then add vodka.
Simmer until the mulled wine almost boiling, then turn into the prepared cups or glasses.
You can also serve non-alcoholic gloegg!
Use the recipes obove but instead of the red wine; use a little more than 2 cups water (5dl), ½ litres blackcurrent juice, a little more than 3/4 cup concentrated apple juice (2 dl).
Boil the spices in water for 5-10 minutes. Then add the juice and apple juice!
Saffron Mulled Wine
Here is a variant with white wine and saffron that is delicious!
Time for preparing: 1 hour 15 minutes.
1,5 L of white wine (2 bottles)
3 cinnamon sticks,
10 peppercorns
a few cloves
0,5 pkt saffron (to taste)
1 vanilla pod
1 tablespoon honey (to taste)
1 orange (peel and flesh)
10 grams of ginger
0,5 tablespoons powder sugar.
Let everything simmer up gently, don´t let it boil, then let the mulled wine stand for an hour, and add the last bit of powder sugar. It is beautiful to let the spices remain, but the mulled wine can also be screened. Enjoy this delightful portion of magic in Christmas cosiness with your family and friends!
Laced White Mulled Wine!
Time: 10 minutes + time for the mulled wine to stand
75 cl semi-dry white wine,
1 cup sugar
a little more than 1/3 cup brown sugar (1 dl)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp cardamom
12 pieces whole cloves
10 cl vodka. (1 dl)
Mix and heat the wine, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and cloves in a pot. The mixture should not boil.
Pull the pan aside and let it soak for 3- 4 hours. Strain the spices. Add the vodka and heat the mulled wine. Serve with raisins and almonds.
Mulled wine with blueberries!
1 liters of glogg.
a little more than 2 cups red wine (5 dl)
a little more than 2 cup blueberry juice (diluted) 5 dl
3 tablespoon sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 pieces of orange peel
2 whole cloves
0,5 cup frozen blueberries (0,5 dl)
Cooking:
Heat the wine, bluberry juice, sugar and spices. Withdraw from the heat and add the blueberries.
Mix some dried blueberry with almonds and serve with blueberry glogg!
Tasty snacks to the Gloegg - Mulled Wine!
Mulled wine truffles!
200 grams dark chocolate 70%
a little less than 1/4 cup whipping cream (0,5 dl)
a little less than 1/4 cup red mulled wine (0,5dl)
5 tbsp sugar
a little less than 1/4 cup cocoa (0,5)
Chop the chocolate coarsely and place it in a bowl. Let cream, mulled wine and glucose boil and then pour it over the chocolate. Don´t do it the other way, or the chocolate will be too hot! Stir until the chocolate melts. Cover with plastic film and set the mixture in the refrigerator a few hours to solidify. Roll balls of the mass and cover them with cocoa. Store the truffles in a cool place.
Tip: Alternative you can make mulled wine truffles with white chocolate and white mulled wine and roll in toasted coconut or grated white chocolate.
Glogg - and gingerbread balls!
These balls contain Swedish gingerbread or Swedish thins! You can read how to bake them here!
30 servings.
200 grams of gingerbread
50 grams butter
30 grams of almond paste
2 tablespoons of mulled wine
To roll the balls in:
100 gram white chocolate
10 pieces of finely crushed ginger.
2 tablespoons cocoa
Crumble the gingerbread and mix with butter, mulled wine and almond into smooth dough. Roll the balls into the melted chocolate and then in bread crumbs mixed with cocoa powder and allow cooling on waxed paper
