Monday, August 19, 2013

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sangria


YAY FOR SANGRIA! I made this sangria for a recent brunch and brewing afternoon that we hosted. We invite a bunch of friends over for pot-luck style brunch (the food is always AMAZING...my friends are culinarily inclined) and once the feasting is over we brew a batch of homebrew. This time we made a Strawberry Ginger Kolsch - I'll let you know how it turned out in 6 weeks.

Typically we go for classic brunch cocktails like bloody marys and mimosas but this time I decided to mix things up a bit. I found a recipe for Blood Orange Sangria on Pinterest and when I couldn't find any blood oranges in town I decided to tweak things a bit - the end result was amazing!



The crisp citrus of the grapefruit was perfect for a summer brunch!This sangria is very refreshing and hides the alcohol very well... which makes it delicious and dangerous.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Sugar, for glass rimming
10 Ruby Red Grapefruits
4 bottles of Pinot Grigio
2 cup Club Soda
1 cup Brandy
1/2 cup Cointreau (orange flavored liqueur)
24 ounces of Strawberries, sliced
2 pints of Raspberries
2 Apples, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup Superfine Sugar
    (you can just put regular sugar in the food processor)


DIRECTIONS

Zest one of the grapefruit and combine it with the 1 cup sugar in a small bowl. Rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers until fragrant. Set aside, this will be used for rimming your serving glasses. Refrigerate if needed.

In a large serving container (I used a glass jug) combine the wine, brandy, cointreau, club soda, apples, strawberries, and raspberries. Stir well to combine. Juice 5 of the grapefruit (include the zested one) directly into the sangria (I cut them in half and juiced them by hand). Cut the remaining grapefruit into wedges and toss into the sangria. Add 1/2 cup superfine sugar. Stir well. Refrigerate overnight (or longer). Before serving taste sangria, if too tart add more of the superfine sugar as needed.




Allow guests to rim their glass with your sugar/zest mixture. I layed out a few orange wedges (because that was the only citrus I had left) for guests to rub onto the edges of their glass rims and then twist into the sugar mixture if they wanted.



Note: this definitely gets better as it sits, so you can make it ahead of time and store it in the fridge. I made mine on Friday night and served it with brunch Sunday morning/afternoon.


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