For those who missed my post on Blueberry Pie Bars, I’ve joined Project Pastry Queen-a group of wonderful food bloggers who are baking their way through The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather. We’ll post the results of the week’s recipe and this week we were assigned Rebecca’s Rather Sweet Sangria. “Rather Sweet” is the name of her bakery & cafe in Texas, hence the name of the beverage. Not your average sorority house sangria, this is a more adult version that leaves out the floating fruit on top (I’m allergic to apples so I can’t drink that kind anyway) and adds brandy for an extra kick.
Of course, I’m not going to make a whole huge batch of sangria and sit at home by myself on a Friday night and drink it on my own-no, that’s where girlfriends come in. I split the recipe and made one half with the suggested red wine and one with white wine. Even between 6 of us, we didn’t come close to finishing either batch, so I highly suggest just doing a half recipe unless you have a big party coming up.
That said, we certainly were refreshing glasses the whole evening, so I know the ladies enjoyed it! It was a touch too sweet for me, but no one else thought so, so keep it in mind when making it to sweeten it to your own taste.
Some notes: To sample both red and white sangrias, I split the below recipe equally into two bowls and added 1/2 a bottle of red wine to one bowl and 1/2 a bottle of of white wine to the other. Be sure to start well ahead of time-you have to make the simple syrup first, which is super super easy, but takes 30 minutes plus cooling time. The original recipe adds pomegranate seeds, which I left out. Finally, I was apprehensive about having to do this recipe because who has ever seen pomegranate molasses at the store? I was absolutely shocked to be casually wandering around my local Italian market, waiting for the boyfriend to pay for a sandwich and not actually paying attention to my surroundings, to look down and see a bottle of pomegranate molasses on the shelf (Rebecca’s suggested brand “Indo-European”, no less!). If it’s that easy for me, it’s got to be easy for you!
Rather Sweet Sangria
From The Pastry Queen
Simple Syrup
- 2 cups water
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 lime, halved
- 1 lemon, halved
- Simmer the water, sugar, lemon and lime in a saucepan for 30 minutes
- After 30 minutes, remove from heat and cool for another 30 minutes
- Squeeze the juice from the lemon and lime halves into the syrup and refrigerate until needed
Sangria
- 1 bottle fruity red Spanish wine or 1 bottle fruity white wine (I used a Sauvignon Blanc)
- 2 cups brandy
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
- juice from 1 lime
- 2 bottles (16.9 oz) chilled sparkling water (or 1 bottle, 33 oz)
- 1 lime sliced
- Combine the wine, brandy, pomegranate molasses, lime juice, and sparkling water in a large bowl and mix. The recipe calls for 2 cups of simple syrup to be added, but as I mentioned, it was awfully sweet for me, so start with 1/2 cup and add more until it is to your liking, up to 2 cups. Add the lime slices.
- If you are not serving immediately, refrigerate the mixture until ready to serve, but hold off on adding the sparkling water, simple syrup and lime slices until the last minute.
- Serve over ice and enjoy! The sangria will keep in the fridge for a week but it will get progressively sweeter the longer it sits. You will have to thin it down with some more sparkling water (about 1 cup) to dilute the sweetness and add some carbonation back in.
