While the frigid wind shakes the last few leaves off the trees and snowflakes build up in the corners of windowsill, Northwesterners are cozied up by fireplaces, heating hands with beverages that taste as warm and comforting as they feel.
Bar Manager Abel Beazley from Portland’s French-Arabesque restaurant Levant shares with us his recipe for his hot Toffaha Toddy. Beazley takes a traditional toddy and beefs it up, Levant style. Instead of being bourbon- and lemon-based, this toddy is brandy- and apple-based (featuring half of a baked apple in the mix!), spiced with an allspice liqueur and balances the sweetness and fruitiness with Cynar—an Italian bitter liqueur made from herbs and plants, most prominently artichoke.
“This toddy is a modern update of a pre-Prohibition cocktail of apple brandy, baked apple and sugar,” Beazley says. “I wanted to make the perfect fall drink and nothing says fall to me more than apple cider and baked apples.”
Check out the Toffaha Toddy recipe below, and in case you missed last week’s Holiday Cocktail, click here to see PiDGiN’s recipe for a Gingerbread Flip.
Toffaha Toddy
Ingredients:
2 ounces Lairs Bonded Apple Brandy
1 ounce Honey Syrup
½ ounce Lemon Juice
½ ounce Cynar
¼ ounce Allspice Dram
One half of a baked apple (recipe follows)
Directions for cocktail:
Shake all ingredients without ice to mix, strain into a warmed glass and add 2 ounces boiling water. Garnish with a long strip of apple peel wrapped around a cinnamon stick.
Directions for the baked apple:
Peel and core an apple. Stuff cloves and pieces of a cinnamon stick into the flesh and bake covered for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees.
