3 Hot Drinks for Christmas

So we're coming up to the big day itself and no doubt most of you have had a LOT of mulled wine already in the lead up. Try my recipe for a fruitier, sweeter mulled wine below as well as two other Christmassy drinks to get you in the festive mood.

Mulled Wine

2 bottles red wine
500ml orange juice
300ml ruby port
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
6 cloves
1 orange
50g caster sugar
Muslin bags (you can buy these on Amazon)

Pour the wine, orange juice, sugar and port into a large pan and heat gently. Don't allow to boil or you'll lose the alcohol content (and nobody wants that!)

Cut the cinnamon sticks with a sharp knife into small parts and pack into the muslin bags along with the cloves and star anise. Add into the liquid. Slice the oranges thickly and add to the pan. Serve in wine glasses with a napkin to hold if too hot.

Winter Punch

This makes a nice change to mulled wine.

1 litre cranberry juice

1 litre apple juice

100ml plum brandy (I use Croatian slivovitz)

100ml port

100ml bourbon

2 cinnamon sticks

Heat all the ingredients gently in a large saucepan until hot to taste. Don't allow to boil or you'll lose the alcohol.

Boozy Hot Chocolate

4 pints whole milk
2 tbsp cornflour
400g dark chocolate
200ml Baileys
100ml Tia Maria

To serve, grated chocolate, ground nutmeg, whipped cream, marshmallows

In a small mug mix the cornflour with a little of the milk until smooth. Pour the rest of the milk into a large pan then whisk in the cornflour mix. Break up the chocolate into squares and add to the milk mixture. Heat gently on the hob, whisking continually until all the chocolate has melted into the milk. Add the Baileys and the Tia Maria just before serving.