Gluhwein- a German Christmas tradition

When I was a junior in high school, my family hosted an exchange student from Germany for the whole year.  It was an amazing experience and now, ten years later, we still keep in touch and I still call him my German big brother. :)  One year at Christmas, my mom and sister and I went to visit his family in Dortmund, which is in western Germany near Dusseldorf.  The following year happened to be the year I was in France for my semester abroad, so I visited them on my own that year around the same time.  Anyway, every December in Dortmund they have a Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas market) which is like a little Christmas village where they have lights, trees, craft-type vendors, and (best of all!) food/drink.  The best part is Gluhwein, which they sell in these cute little mugs that you get to keep (they have a different one each year, so I have 2!).

My Gluhweintassen collection. :)

Gluhwein is red wine, served hot, mulled with spices and with a little brandy for an added kick.  Even if you have a high alcohol tolerance, I would not suggest drinking it when you have plans to be going somewhere because it packs quite a punch.  I modified this recipe from allrecipes.com and I made a half recipe since there were only 4 of us.  Here is my spin on it (I'll give the whole recipe version):

2 oranges
2 bottles red wine
1 bottle white wine
1 piece of ginger (3"), peeled and thinly sliced
3 cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup brown sugar, or to taste
1.4 cup brandy

1) Use a paring knife or vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the oranges in strips.  Remove only the orange part; leave the white rind part.  Juice the oranges and pour juice into a heavy-bottomed pot, over medium-high heat.

2) Pour red and white wine into the pot with the orange juice.  Add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, orange zest peels, and brown sugar to the mixture.  Stir to dissolve sugar.  Heat until mixture is heated through, but not boiling, then reduce heat to low/simmer.

3) Simmer for at least an hour over low heat.  Just before serving, stir in brandy.  Strain into mugs and serve hot.

Didn't get a picture until all but half a mug was gone!

Here are my notes for this recipe:

- The only real challenge in this recipe for me was peeling just the orange part from the oranges.  Inevitably, most of my strips had a little bit of the white stuff.  There's probably some new-fangled tool they make for this purpose that I don't have. :-P

- I added a lot more brown sugar than was suggested, probably because they red wine I used was a shiraz, which is fairly dry.  I can't tell you exactly how much I used since I really just keep dumping it in, but I can tell you it was well over the 1/3 cup, and remember I only made a half recipe!  You really do just have to keep tasting it to see if you want to add more sugar and, of course, it will depend on the wine you use.

- Half of this recipe made enough for 4 1/2 mugs.  If this is your first experience with Gluhwein, I would try the half recipe first (unless you have a lot more people to serve than I did), because you may not be able to handle more than one mug!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed our journey to Germany!  Happy New Year!