Sweden · 55 min · Vegan · Drink · For beginners
Glögg
For 6 servings · US units
Hot spiced wine with cardamom and orange, served with raisins and almonds
Glögg is red wine spiced with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and finished with a splash of spirits; dried bitter orange peel adds the classic Swedish bitter note. It belongs to winter, Christmas and other festive gatherings. Each glass holds raisins steeped in the wine, a few almonds and a slice of orange.
Ingredients
- 3⅛ cupsred winefull-bodied
- ⅔ cupspiritsvodka, unflavoured brännvin, rum or brandy; add at the end
- 3½ ozsugarwhite or brown, adjust to taste
- 2½ ozraisinssteeped in the wine and served in the glass
- 1 ozalmondsblanched, whole or slivered; for serving
- 1cinnamon
- 8cloveswhole
- 8split open or seeds lightly crushedDried green seed pods of a plant in the ginger family; the small black seeds inside taste floral, resinous and faintly lemony.Substitute: Ground cardamom can stand in for freshly crushed seeds, but it tastes flatter and gives no texture, so use a little more. No other spice matches the flavour; cinnamon or nutmeg turn it into a different bake.Read more
- 1orangeunwaxed; zest and a few slices into the wine, slices for garnish
- 1 tspdried; classic Swedish, instead of or in addition to orangeDried peel of the bitter or Seville orange, usually ground or in small pieces. Bitter and intensely fragrant, a classic spice in Scandinavian Christmas baking and glögg.Substitute: Freshly grated Seville orange zest comes closest but is only available in winter. Otherwise use finely grated zest of an ordinary orange with a little grapefruit zest to suggest the bitterness; the result is sweeter and fruitier, and the bitter, floral note is missing. Candied peel is no substitute, as it is sugared and barely bitter.Read more
- 1gingerfresh thumb-sized piece, sliced, or dried
- 1 (optional)Caution: True Chinese star anise is safe, but the similar-looking Japanese star anise is toxic, so use only star anise sold as food and not decorative or unlabelled pods.The dried, star-shaped fruit of an evergreen tree from southern China, with a strong, sweetish anise aroma.Substitute: Aniseed or fennel seed gives a similar anise note but is milder and less warm; use about half a teaspoon per star. The deep, slightly woody depth of star anise will be missing.Read more
Method
- Prepare the spices and orangeSplit the cardamom pods open or lightly crush the seeds. Wash the orange in hot water, pare or grate off the zest and cut a few slices; set some slices aside for garnish.
- Combine everything in a panPut the red wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, ginger, bitter orange peel, orange zest, orange slices and raisins into a pan. Add a star anise if you like.
- Gently heat the wineHeat the wine slowly until it steams. Do not let it boil, or the alcohol will cook off and the spices will turn bitter.
- Let the glögg infuseLeave the glögg to infuse over low heat for 20 to 45 minutes; the longer it steeps, the stronger the spice.
- Add spirits and adjust sweetnessPour in the spirits and let it infuse for another 5 to 15 minutes, still without boiling. Taste and add more sugar if needed.
- Remove spices or strainLift out the spices and peel, or strain the glögg, saving the raisins.
- Serve in glasses with garnishLadle the hot glögg into heatproof glasses and add a few raisins, some almonds and an orange slice to each.
Tips and variations
To make a batch ahead, steep the spices, bitter orange peel and raisins in brännvin for four days, strain, warm gently with the red wine and sugar, then bottle and keep somewhere cool. A blueberry glögg is made without spirits: keep the red wine, add blueberry juice and the spices to it and warm everything together, then drop in frozen blueberries and serve with dried berries, almonds and gingerbread. For a festive touch, pour high-proof brandy over sugar cubes, flambé until the sugar melts and stir it into the wine. A softer version uses rum instead of vodka and ground cardamom instead of the pods. A spicier version adds star anise and fresh ginger and simmers gently for 45 minutes. Serve each glass with a small spoon so the raisins and almonds can be fished out at the end.
Allergens
Contains: Tree nuts, Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
