Recipe: Hot brandy choctails

Potstill brandy and quality, dark chocolate always makes a great pairing.

Using Van Ryn’s 10-year-old Vintage Brandy and 12-year-old Distiller’s Reserve potstill, cocktail specialist Owen O’ Reilly created hot chocolate and brandy cocktails – or as he likes to call them, hot brandy choctails.

An extra flair is added with Nomu’s range of premium hot drinking chocolates.

These recipes can be made at home and promise the most decadent accompaniment to help you own winter.

Van Ryn’s Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Pumpkin purée
1 butternut
4 tbsp Nomu Cook’s Collection Holiday Baking spice
300ml water
200g sugar

Cocktail
50ml Van Ryn’s 10-Year-Old Vintage Brandy, per serving
35ml pumpkin purée, per serving
2 tsp Nomu Skinny Hot Chocolate per serving
Boiling water, to top up

To serve
250ml whipping cream, whipped
1 pump Nomu vanilla paste
Pumpkin purée, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°.

2. Cut pumpkin into 4, remove seeds, and place onto a baking tray.

3. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp NOMU Cook’s Collection Holiday Baking Spice, and bake for an hour, or until the pumpkin is soft to the touch. Set aside – once cool, remove the pumpkin skin.

4. While cooling, add the water, sugar and remaining, 2 tbsp NOMU Cook’s Collection Holiday Baking Spice to a small pot, and bring to a rolling boil. Simmer while stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add baked pumpkin pieces to a blender or food processor with the spiced syrup. Blend until smooth and then pour through a fine strainer.

5. Add a little water if the purée is too thick. Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

6. Pour the Van Ryn’s 10 Year Old Vintage Brandy and pumpkin purée into your choice of mug or glass. Add NOMU Skinny Hot Chocolate and stir into a paste. Add boiling water, leaving room for cream, and stir briskly.

7. Whip the cream to soft peaks and stir through the NOMU Vanilla Paste. Gently spoon the cream into the glasses, and drizzle with the remaining pumpkin purée.

Van Ryn’s Blazing Chococcino

Van Ryn’s Blazing Chococcino cocktail. Picture: Supplied

Ingredients

50ml Van Ryn’s 12-year-old Distiller’s Reserve Brandy
25ml citrus liqueur
3 tsp Nomu Just Add Water Hot Chocolate
75ml prepared filter coffee
75ml milk
1 pump Nomu vanilla paste
Marshmallows, to serve

Method

1. Use two small pots or frothing jugs with handles. Add all ingredients to one pot or jug and heat while stirring.

2. Carefully light the liquid using a long handled lighter, and slowly pour burning liquid from one pot or jug to the other.

3. Repeat this step 4 or 5 times, to aerate the mixture.

4. Pour into a serving vessel and garnish with marshmallows.

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