Mulled wine - DIY

To make your own glögg (mulled wine) is not only fun, it creates a magical, aromatic scent that will spread throughout the home. It’s the perfect way to enjoy the remaining weekends leading up to Christmas. In Sweden we typically celebrate each Advent Sunday with glögg, sweets and gingerbread. Our easy to follow recipe will most definitely impress your guests!

If you think glögg is a must for Christmas try out our easy to make, alcohol-free glögg, made of lingonberries. Swedish lingonberries teams well with exotic spices like cinnamon, cardamom and clove. The most wonderful scent will immediately emerge from your saucepan and linger on. We made our glögg without alcohol. If you want to, you may add alcohol later, when serving it. Glögg is a Swedish tradition since the 1890s and is typically served steaming hot in small glasses.

Lingonberries will make the glögg beautifully red! We used handpicked lingonberries from the forest, store bought ones or frozen will of course work just as well. We decorated the glögg with some fresh berries when serving it.

Ingredients:

2 liter lingonberries

2 liter water

1 cleaned large orange

1 kg (or to taste) powdered sugar

1 bag of whole cloves

1 bag of whole cardamom seeds

1 bag of whole cinnamon sticks

Instructions:

• Rinse the berries and part the orange (with the peel still on) into wedges. Put the berries, water, orange wedges and all of the spices into a saucepan. Let it boil slowly for about 20 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the stove and let it cool off under a lid for one hour.
• Drain the glögg from all spices and pour into a clean saucepan. Warm at medium heat and add sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Pour your glögg into clean bottles and store at a cool, dark place to be used within 1-2 weeks.

Serving: Heat the glögg in a saucepan and if you feel like it, add Vodka or Brandy. Make sure not to boil the glögg if you add alcohol. Float some raisins and blanched almonds into each glass or serve them on the side.

Christmas candy goes well with Glögg!

We stored our Glögg in glass bottles and used a Dymo sticker to decorate them. A white pen will do the trick as well and voilà, you have an original gift to bring to the host next time you attend an Advent or Christmas party!

Set the Advent table with your homemade Glögg, candy and ginger bread. We decorated the table with a fir garland and our new stained Advent electric candelabra.