SANGRIA

I made this sangria for book club this week, and everyone said they really liked it a lot.  I was very pleased with it as well and will definitely use this recipe any time I make sangria.  The recipe came from one of Lauren’s girlfriends so I was a bit wary whether a 27-year old would have the best recipe, but it is after all alcohol, and they are usually better about that than they are food!  The fruit probably cost more than the wine, but everyone told me to use cheap wine so I did and it worked great.  You can use frozen fruit, but I used all fresh fruit.   Lauren really thought the apples and raspberries were a necessity, and her friend had listed the other fruits, so I just used them all.   Just be sure and start it the day before so the fruit has time to flavor the wine.

12 oz. bottle of Brandy

1 apple, chunked
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
1 lime, sliced
½ cantelope, chunked
About half a container of strawberries, cut in half
Whole container of raspberries
½ c. sugar
2 bottles dry red wine (I used the big bottle of Yellow Tail Syrah)
2 liter bottle of Ginger Ale

Pour the brandy and sugar over the fruit and stir well.  Put it in a glass container with a lid on it and refrigerate it overnight.  I occasionally went in and turned my jar upside down so all the fruit was getting time in the brandy.  The next morning pour the bottle of wine over it all and give it a good stir.  I transferred it to a gallon container at this time.  Refrigerate it for the rest of the day, occasionally stirring it.

To serve pour out about 1/3 of it, including some of the fruit, into a pitcher.  Then pour in ginger ale.  I didn’t measure it, but for the whole container I used about 2/3 of the 2-liter bottle, so pour about 1/3 of that amount and stir it (You do the math – it has never been my strong suit!)  By doing this you aren’t contaminating all your sangria so the leftovers can be drunk the next day or so.  The ginger ale will go flat and ruin your batch if it is all mixed in and not drunk the same day.   You will want to taste the first pitcher and then adjust the amount of ginger ale you prefer, but in my opinion it was just the right amount of sweetness.   Don’t add ice into your pitcher or it will water down your sangria.  Instead, have an ice bucket with your wine glasses available for everyone to serve themselves.  Yum!