Christmas Drinks: Spiced Apple Juice and Mulled Wine

I threw a little "mince pie" party last week where I served these festive drinks. I don't think they fit into the Low FODMAP diet but they were mainly for the guests. I did try the hot apple juice and I had two small glasses of mulled wine without any tummy upsets.

I made the "mulled" apple juice for the drivers but although people complimented it I had apple juice leftover and I run out of mulled wine!

SPICED APPLE JUICE

Ingredients:

• 1 litre apple juice (ideally not from concentrate)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cloves
• strips of orange peel
• sugar to taste

Method:

Simmer the apple juice with the strips of orange peel, cinnamon stick and cloves for 10 minutes. Sweeten to taste.

MULLED WINE
 
Ingredients:

• 1x75cl bottle light red wine (I used a light Merlot, claret is supposed to be good too)
• little freshly grated nutmeg
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 2 oranges, zest pared, juice squeezed from one, the other cut into chunks
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• 1 apple, quartered, cored and thickly sliced

Method:

Put the sugar, the orange zest, juice and chunks, cinnamon and nutmeg in a pan with 300ml water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes to infuse the spices, then add the wine and apple slices and bring to a simmer.