spiced pumpkin & cider highballs with sugared rosemary

This is a perfect fall cocktail. I came up with it after making some spiced pumpkin bourbon that I wanted to use up. I love cooking with pumpkin in the fall-- but find that most recipes only require half a pumpkin-- so the rest usually goes into making this bourbon. It is sweetened with a brown sugar rosemary apple simple syrup and finished off with real (unpasteurized) apple cider. this tastes infinitely better than the stuff at the grocery store. I get mine at the farmer's market under the jfx. You can use either fresh cider or let it start to ferment in your fridge and become hard cider. The homemade hard cider is tasty on it's own, but drink it quickly or you'll have cider vinegar. Don't use commercially bottled hard cider-- it is too sweet. (At least I have yet to find one that isn't too sweet anyway) This drink tastes very light, but is actually quite strong.

spiced pumpkin & cider highballs with sugared rosemary

• 2 oz. spiced pumpkin bourbon (recipe follows)
• brown sugar rosemary apple simple syrup (recipe follows)
• 1 oz. unpasteurized apple cider
• sugared rosemary sprigs (recipe follows)

to be honest I almost never measure drinks and rarely make just one at a time so feel free to adjust to your taste. (i am more likely to dump everything in a pitcher and adjust until it tastes right.) Mix the bourbon and cider and syrup to taste. Pour over ice and garnish with a sugared rosemary sprig.

brown sugar rosemary apple simple syrup

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• peel of one apple (2 if they are small)
• sprig of dried rosemary

put sugar and water in a small saucepan, cook on medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved. (it can be a little tricky to tell with dark sugar touch it if you aren't sure) add apple peel and rosemary and tent pan with foil. allow to cool completely. strain.














spiced pumpkin bourbon

• half a smallish pumpkin (i use sugar pie pumpkins)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• tbs. whole cloves
• half a vanilla pod
• 1 litre of bourbon (i tend to use the cheap stuff)

cut the pumpkin into medium sized pieces and roast in a 375 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes or until soft and lightly caramelized. **do not oil the pumpkin or you will have oily bourbon and that is nasty. trust me. put the roasted pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla in a container with the bourbon. i use those throw away tupperware containers but you will need to keep the bourbon reasonably out of direct light so use something dark if that concerns you. (i don't throw the containers away either) alternatively you can pour out some of the bourbon from the bottle and put the pumpkin directly in but you will end up with much less bourbon and it's hard to get the pumpkin out once it goes in. it does make a nice gift that way though. let sit out of direct sunlight for as long as you have patience-- at least a week or two ideally more. the longer it sits the stronger it gets.



















sugared rosemary sprigs

• 4 or 5 fresh rosemary sprigs about 3 inches long (you can cut longer sprigs in half)
• 1 egg white
• sugar

mix the egg with a tsp. or so of water to make an egg wash. ** you could use powdered egg whites if you are fussy about raw eggs. dump the sugar in a small dish. dip the rosemary in the egg wash and shake off excess. dip into sugar and roll to coat. set on wax paper or a silpat to dry.