chocolate cupcakes -

by BS

Drinking the Season: 7 Holiday Cocktail Recipes

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, you know what ES has up our virtual sleeves for you…a holiday cocktail! Or seven!

OK, fine, we don’t actually have a Kwanzaa cocktail (Sandra Lee…where aaaaare you on this one?) but from peppermint to gingerbread, there’s something on this holiday cocktail list everyone can get behind.

1. Seven Layer Cookie

3/4 oz. Godiva® Liqueur
3/4 oz. Coconut rum
1/2 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps
1/2 oz. Partida Anejo Tequila
1/4 oz. Frangelico
1/2 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream®
1/2 oz. Amaretto

Garnish rim of a martini glass with crushed cookie crumbs. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into martini glass.

2. Wine Me Up Santa

From: W Retreat & Spa, Vieques Island

1 750ml bottle red table wine
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon whole cloves
¾ teaspoon whole pink peppercorns
2oz honey
2oz vodka
1oz triple sec
.5oz soy lecithin
Cinnamon powder

Warm all ingredients except soy lecithin in a saucepan at a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not allow the temperature to exceed 140°F / 60°C (If mixture starts to boil, lower the heat.) Seal and chill. Take ¼ of your mixture and use an electric hand blender to mix in soy lecithin to create an airy topping. Pour in liquid mixture to fill half of a glass mug or teacup, top with mulled wine, air, and lightly dust the top with cinnamon.

3. Chocolate Peppermint Cookie

3/4 oz. Partida Blanco Tequila
1 oz. Peppermint Schnapps
3/4 oz. Godiva® Liqueur
1-1/2 oz. Cream

Rim martini glass with chocolate syrup and crushed candy canes. Shake ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into martini glass.

Cupcake Rampage: Gluten-Free Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

_{a. k. a. Bunraku cupcakes. Get it? Of course you do.}

I know several people who have the bad luck to suffer from celiac disease, a disorder of the autoimmune system that manifests itself as varying degrees of wheat intolerance. The impact of this affliction is that they can’t enjoy a lot of the foods that some of us might take for granted; breads, beer, cupcakes, etc.

Vegans and celiacs are like kindred spirits in this sense; we take forever to shop because we inspect every ingredient list in the grocery store aisles, we don’t make any friends at restaurants when we viciously interrogate hapless servers, and we both suffer when we screw up, albeit in different ways. For most vegans, the lifestyle is a conscious choice; celiacs don’t really have a say in the way their bodies behave.

Baking gluten-free isn’t as difficult as it’s been made out to be, although it does require a few extra ingredients and involves an additional step or two. Most gluten-free recipes will call for the use of two or three different kinds of gluten-free flours. The reason for this is that while wheat flour is, for the most part, bland and flat; flours made from other grains and seeds each have their own distinctive flavors and textures that can easily overwhelm and throw off the final result. A good example is corn flour, which has a very identifiable taste and works great for corn muffins or tortillas, but not so much if you’re trying to utilize other flavors, like chocolate.

Recipe after the jump.