Happy Turkey Day, folks! Now that you’ve filled your bellies with massive amounts of turducken, dressing, sweet potatoes & pecan pie…howsabout a nice cocktail to wash it all down with?
I’ve got just the thing.
Commander’s Palace in New Orleans makes a cocktail called “The Drunken Pumpkin”. It’s unusual list of ingredients includes the following:
2 oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
1/2 oz Fee Bros. Cordial Pumpkin Spice Syrup
1/4 oz Mandarin Napoleon
2 drops Black Cherry vinaigrette
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Fresh rosemary sprig
Many of which aren’t exactly things that you can find just laying around the house (at least not MY house…but maybe you have a nicer pantry than I).
When I decided I wanted to recreate this one the first challenge was “where in the world do I find pumpkin cordial?” I had read you can order it from Fee Bros. directly, but then I didn’t see it on their website…so I wonder about availability? Given the recent pumpkin shortages, it makes me wonder if their supplies are limited or if they weren’t able to make it this year.
So I found a recipe for making pumpkin syrup at home! Normally, this would be way too much effort for just a cocktail, but it’s actually really versatile—mix it with some milk and BOOM—homemade creamer for your coffee. It’s also pretty awesome in hot cider, and as a syrup over pancakes or drizzled on the Pumpkin Cranberry Scones from last week…
So—how do we make it? Super simple.
Heat one small saucepan & add
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups white sugar
Stir til dissolved. Then add:
4 cinnamon sticks (or about 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon)
2 whole cloves (or 1/8 tsp if you don’t have whole)
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin.
Heat for about 6-7 minutes while stirring, but don’t let it boil. Then strain—use a metal sieve or strainer. For some stupid reason, I thought I’d be able to filter this with a coffee filter, but it’s WAY too viscous for that. And since we couldn’t find the regular metal sieve, we had to use a pasta strainer (don’t laugh, it sorta worked). And here’s our beautiful, delicious, golden end result:
(Once we find the strainer, we’ll have to refilter, as you can see.)
I was short on a few of the other ingredients as well, so this is what we used. It took some trial & error, playing with the ratios (since I’m not much of a bourbon person, and it just didn’t have enough pumpkin flavor for me at first):
2 oz bourbon
2 oz pumpkin syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
3 dashes Montmorency tart cherry juice
fresh rosemary, removed from the stem.
Put all ingredients into a shaker w/ice, and shake vigorously until cold. Strain & pour into a highball w/ice (I split mine with the hubs):
(Mad props to Raised Spirits for the pumpkin syrup recipe.)
Verdict? Mighty tasty & deliciously spicy…but perhaps a bit thick (due to our upping the dosage of syrup to increase the pumpkiny-ness). If we’d had some on hand, I would have added a bit of seltzer water to lighten it up & add a little fizz.
So, there you go.
Now, inquiring minds want to know: What’s your favorite part of your turkey day feastings? For me, it’s my mom’s chicken & noodles.
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