20101123

GINGERBREAD MOCKTAIL RECIPE

http://themartinidiva.com
This GINGERBREAD MARTINI is in my top two personal favorite Holiday martinis (you'll note it's on a Christmas Recipe Card Design) and it's up in my top ten favorite martinis of all time.  Why? Because it was inspired by my very favorite cookie in the world, my Mom's Gingersnap Cookies.
 
If you want you can add a dollop of whipped cream on top, float your little gingerbread cookie on that and then sprinkle on your spices.

GINGERBREAD MOCKTAIL
for those who don't drink alcohol
 
3 Oz. Half & Half
1 Tbsp. Dark Molasses
1 Tbsp. Gingerbread Flavored Coffee Mate
1 Tsp. Vanilla Flavoring
1/4 Tsp. Each of Cinnamon, Ginger and Clove

Follow the same instructions for the gingerbread cookie garnish and chilling your glass.  Dissolve the molasses and the Coffee Mate in your half & half before adding to your martini shaker, you want to make sure they get fully incorporated into the half & half - especially the thick molasses.  I did this in a clear glass so I could check the bottom to see if any of the molasses is still settling there.  Then fill your martini shaker with ice, pour in the molasses-Coffee Mate-half & half mixture as well as the remaining ingredients and shake vigorously until fully blended and chilled and serve.
 
I played with this one day at a friend's house when I spied their Gingerbread Coffee Mate on the counter and it isn't bad, though, personally,  I'm sticking with the alcoholic version -  but you figured that out didn't you? 
 
MY GINGERBREAD COCKTAILS
 
Updated 8-2016
 
 

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20101122

THANKSGIVING MARTINIS - Pumpkin Eggnog Martini

 After 12 years of creating cocktail recipes things got a little messy and I had to do some housekeeping so ..

The recipe for the Pumpkin Eggnog Martini is now living happily at it's new home here:
PUMPKIN EGGNOG MARTINI RECIPE
 
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20101121

THANKSGIVING MARTINIS- Fall Apple Martini with Jack Daniels!

Updated November 2015

The recipe for my delicious Apple Jack Martini has moved over to my new cocktail database below:

FALL APPLE JACK MARTINI

One of the best holiday cocktail combinations is whiskey and apple, especially for Thanksgiving.  Apples are a fall fruit that blend wonderfully with the smokiness of a premium whiskey and that combination gets a little kick from the sour apple pucker.

When it comes to whiskey I am a Jack Daniel's fan.  I've been using it for years in my cooking, especially in my whiskey sauce for my Saucy Bread Pudding and in my Tipsy Baked Black Beans.  Their distillation method gives the whiskey a wonderful smoky taste that complements a lot of recipes.  (Here's some interesting Jack Daniel's trivia:  Jack Daniel's home county of Moore in Lynchburg, Tennessess is a dry county!)

The Fall Apple Jack Martini goes great with my Tipsy Baked Black Beans - turn them into a bean dip and serve with some tortilla chips and a nice shaker full of Fall Apple Jack Martinis! Then serve up my bread pudding with a Jack Daniels whiskey sauce and you've got a perfect al fresco meal for cold fall weather, a tail gate party and the Thanksgiving season!

More Thanksgiving Cocktails

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20101120

CRANBERRY LIQUEUR RECIPE & A Cranberry Pomegranate Martini Recipe




I made some home made Cranberry Liqueur and had to try it out with a new Thanksgiving martini recipe.  I wanted something that tasted like my cranberry relish that I serve for the holiday and I always add orange zest and a little dash of Grenadine (a pomegranate syrup) and some fresh pomegranate seeds to my cranberries for a more unique cranberry dish.

I never like to serve something that's just like everybody else and the pomegranates change up a typical cranberry relish - plus I like pomegranates more than cranberries!

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THANKSGIVING TURKEY PILGRIM CARTOON

 

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20101119

THANKSGIVING MARTINIS - A Cranberry Whiskey Martini



THE CRANBERRY A-GO-GO MARTINI
No fruit says Thanksgiving quite the way a cranberry does.  Along with blueberries and the concord grape, the cranberry is one of only three fruits native to North America.  Originally called a "craneberry" because the blossoms of the plant resembled the head and bill of a Sandhill crane, this tart little red fruit was a staple for Native Americans.  It was used in a variety of foods and was an essential element in pemmican, a high protein combination of crushed cranberries, dried deer meat and melted fat. It was also used as a medicine to treat arrow wounds and it provided a deep red dye for rugs and blankets.
 For most Americans the Thanksgiving table is not complete without some form of cranberry dish and now, with the CRANBERRY A-GO-GO MARTINI, we have one more way to serve up this truly American treat to our holiday guests!

Even though I'm traditionally a vodka drinker, I really enjoy this whiskey based martini.  I love cranberry and Jack Daniels together.  I usually use Clear Creek Cranberry Liqueur from Oregon in this recipe but this year I tinkered with a homemade recipe for making my own Cranberry Liqueur.  The result was wonderful and I'll be posting the recipe for my homemade Cranberry Liqueur as well as a couple of new Thanksgiving cocktail recipes before next Thursday so stay tuned!

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THANKSGIVING TURKEY PILGRIM CARTOON

 

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20101118

THANKSGIVING MARTINI - Candied Apple Martini

The
Recipe
Updated November 2015

The Candied Apple Martini  (I call it the Candy Appled Martini just to be contrary) is the first of my five Thanksgiving Martinis I'll be posting from now until the day before Thanksgiving.

This is inspired from those hard shelled candy apples we used to get during the fall back in Kansas.  Most candied apples are cinnamon flavored but the ones we had were raspberry flavored and I loved them.  Sadly, I've never found them anywhere again but at least I can enjoy the flavors in this martini!
Many other "candy apple recipes" call for butterscotch schnapps but those end up tasting more like a caramel apple to me, not a candied apple!  I have a ton of caramel apple martinis as well but caramel apples are more Halloween to me than Thanksgiving - though I love them anytime I can get my hands on one.

This is a powerful martini and it's all alcohol so it's a smaller martini - perfect for a 4.5 ounce martini glass.  Enjoy and come back through Thanksgiving for the rest of my Thanksgiving cocktails.

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20101117

HOW TO MIX A COCKTAIL: Martinis - Shake, Stir or Roll?


 Image ©2010 by PopArtDiva.Com. All Rights Reserved. No permission is given to copy, share, distribute, reproduce, post or print without written authorization.
 
THANKSGIVING MARTINIS
START TOMORROW!


THE MANY WAYS
TO MIX A COCKTAIL 
 
DO I SHAKE, STIR, BLEND or ROLL?

Stirring, Shaking and Blending are probably techniques you are familiar with. Rolling a cocktail is a less used technique that many of you might not have tried. "Rolling" your cocktail dilutes the drink less than other methods and adds less air than shaking.
 
WHEN and HOW to "ROLL" a COCKTAIL:

Rolling is a good technique for cocktails with few ingredients and cocktails served on the rocks (over ice).
To roll your drink you'll need two glasses or one glass and a cocktail shaker
  • Fill one glass to the top with ice then add your cocktail ingredients.
  • Pour the contents from this glass into another glass or cocktail shaker (no ice needed in second container).
  • Return your cocktail ingredients to the original glass.
WHEN TO SHAKE

It's best to shake a cocktail when there are fruit juices involved or when you're using a cream or egg element.  Shaking infuses air into your cocktail which cuts the sometimes cloying sweetness of fruits. The aggressiveness of shaking helps to blend thicker elements, like creams and eggs, into the cocktail for a smoother drinking experience.

WHEN TO STIR

When you are mixing a cocktail made only with spirits, stirring is the preferred method.  Stirring does not add air to your mix like shaking and your drink will stay clear as opposed to the cloudy effect of shaking.  This is why a classic martini of gin and vermouth should be stirred, not shaken.
 
WHEN TO BLEND
 
I believe blending should only be used for "frozen" cocktails (like a margarita or a daiquiri) or cocktails that are difficult to mix any other way.  I use this method for my "Martini Smoothies" to fully incorporate the fruit solids into the drink.  Blending can dilute a cocktail up to 40%, depending on whether you use ice and how much ice is used so you only want to blend when you have ingredients like pieces of fruit, vegetables or other solid ingredients or your ingredients are powerful enough to stand up to the dilution level. Start with less ice - you can always add more but you can't take it out!

When blending a cocktail I will start with my solids (like the fruit pieces) and at least an ounce of juice or liquor and pulse this until pureed.  Then I add my crushed ice and my other ingredients and pulse until I no longer hear chunks of ice against the blades.

WHICH METHOD DILUTES THE DRINK MORE?

This all depends on how long you shake, stir, blend or roll!  A blender, as mentioned above, dilutes the most of all methods and the more ice you use the more diluted your cocktail becomes.  As for the other mixing techniques, the longer the ice is in contact with the drink contents the more water is added.  Shaking tends to chill the drink faster, all things being even.

WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO SHAKE A COCKTAIL?

With all the flair bartending going on these days you might think that shaking requires a six week course at an extreme bartending school.  Flair or extreme bartending is fun and a great way to entertain bar patrons but you don't need to be Tom Cruise's character, Brain Flanagan, in "Cocktail" to properly shake a drink. 

The best method for shaking is to place the shaker in front of you in as upright a position as comfortable for you and shake up and down as rapidly as possible.  The harder and more vigorously you shake, the colder and more mixed your cocktail becomes with less dilution from the ice.  The exception to this is when you are shaking a cocktail with an egg, then you start with a slow shake, gradually speeding up to a vigorous shake - this keeps the foaming down so you don't end up with a cocktail glass full of fluff!

GET YOUR INGREDIENTS IN PLACE

If you want to mix a great cocktail, get your ingredients ready before you start to shake, stir or roll.  Good chefs and bartenders always prepare their "mise en place" before starting to cook.

If your ice is melting in your shaker while you muddle, strain, juice or chop you're going to end up with a watered down cocktail.

WHAT GOES IN FIRST?

The typical order for mixing cocktails is ice, then your base alcohol, then your secondary alcohols, then your mixers or juices.  Layered cocktails are poured by weight with the heaviest element being poured first and the lightest one last so each layer will float on the heavier layer below. 
 
You now have the basic cocktail mixing techniques - ready, set and Shake, Stir, Rattle & Roll!

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Updated 5-13-2025 
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