Christmas tastes of cinnamon, apples and cloves. It is a festival that smells of vanilla and it can also be a bit high-proof. Julia Stifter, councilor of the Free Voters in Unterhaching, manages to combine all these wintry, Christmas flavor nuances. Your homemade apple liqueur and specially stirred gingerbread syrup are a feast for the senses.
By the way, she doesn’t wait until Christmas Eve. Because the liquid delicacies from your kitchen are ready to be enjoyed long ago, even in the Advent season. “Our family likes to meet at a very small grill in the garden, then we put a few sausages on it, drink mulled wine and, of course, the apple liqueur,” she says. Especially in the pandemic in which the Christmas markets closed, this is a very nice alternative. However, she also produces the liqueurs as gifts. She collects pretty juice bottles all year round. They then get a handwritten label.
At Julia Stifter, making apple liqueurs in winter is almost something of a tradition. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, I don’t even know where the recipe came from,” she says. She takes about 400 grams of applesauce, which should be very fine. “If there are still bits in it, you should puree it again,” she advises. Add 300 milliliters of naturally cloudy apple juice and sugar as you like. Add some cinnamon or two cinnamon sticks to the liquid. The mixture is warmed up in a saucepan, “but it can’t get too hot,” she says. Then add 400 milliliters of vodka and, if you want, a little amaretto. Continue heating the liqueur for a quarter of an hour, the sugar should be completely dissolved. Then immediately fill into hot rinsed bottles and screw on quickly. You can drink the apple liqueur like this or pour it over vanilla ice cream.
She tried the gingerbread syrup for the first time this year and is absolutely thrilled. Julia Stifter found the recipe on the Internet. You take 500 milliliters of water, a splash of lemon juice, 300 grams of brown sugar and heat the mixture in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Then add a teaspoon of vanilla paste, three cloves, two cinnamon sticks and six teaspoons of gingerbread spice and let it simmer. Then everything is pressed through a coffee filter or sieve and filled into prepared bottles. “Highly recommended in espresso with milk and icing,” says Julia Stifter, “it’s like Starbucks at home.”
The steady time is a bland time this year. With this series, the SZ tries to bring at least a little bit of light into Advent every day.