Mulled wine Belle-Plagne style

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 1 litre red wine
• 2 3 oranges
• 3 1 grapefruit
• 4 1 sachet vanilla sugar
• 5 5 tablespoons caster sugar
• 6 1 pinch cinnamon (optional)
• Total weight: 2,315 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
30 min.	1 hour 3 min.	1 hour 35 min.

Step by step recipe

1	I advise you to use a very basic wine. Pour 1 litre red wine into a pan and bring to the boil on medium heat.
2	Meanwhile, cut fruit in half, set half an orange and a half grapefruit aside, and squeeze the others.
3	Scrub the skin of the other 2 half fruit thoroughly, and cut into small pieces, with both peel and flesh on each as far as possible.
4	When wine boils, set light to the alcohol vapours (a pretty blue flame) by holing a flame above the pan. Leave all alcohol to burn off, which will take about 2-3 minutes.
5	Pour fruit juice into wine.
6	Add 1 sachet vanilla sugar, 5 tablespoons caster sugar, and 1 pinch cinnamon, mix well.
7	Add pieces of fruit, turn down heat to minimum and leave to simmer until drinking time (but at least one hour).
8	Serve in glasses or mugs, a generous helping of wine and a few fruits.

Remarks

Many people think that the most important thing in mulled wine is the spices, but for me it's more the wine-fruit mix which gives the delicious hint of acidity. Then you can add whatever you want: vanilla, cinnamon, aniseed, pepper,...
For a quick mulled wine, forget: vanilla sugar, grapefruit and cinnamon.
For a glittering presentation, serve in glasses (not mugs) with the edges dipped in white egg then caster sugar.

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