So, i am in Spain – Mallorca. National drink? Sangria of course….

Did u know that Sangria is named after the Latin word for ‘blood’? – which is sanguis… of course u didnt… thanks to the Romans who invaded Spain and planted millions of vineyards around 200 BC… and the reason why the habit of drinking this nectar spreaded out so quickly? The answer is more funny than easy: it was not safe enough to drink water…. :))) hehehe. And its true. People usually mixed their water with somekindof alcohol to kill off the bacterias… and because every household kept wine in that time – was obviously clever drinking wine (see, they were so luckly having this excuse being drunk all the time… but what about us now???) – by the time they started to mix up with fruits, make it a little bit sweeter and stronger with brandy.

Jumping to the present now, at my Pub we have an amazing Sangria cocktail – following the acient roman recipe of course :)) – , not just amazingly yummy but f8ckin’ cool to look at it… hope i dont tell u big secrets with the main ingredients, but its a nice amount of brandy, cointreau with a tasty dry red wine… of course there is orange juice, sugar syrup, fruits, etc etc… so it just looks and tastes mallorquin sexy… :)

(— footnote: why do i feel that i can not secede from the alcoholic drinks in this blog???? :)))

Anyway…  so i was surfing and brainsorming on the Internet as usual when i find the basic idea (butter me up, Brooklyn! – thanks to Lillie) here. My brain went crazy and with a couple of modifications i created my drunk muffin for all the lonely nights… :) inspired by sangria…

I tell u the recipe but if u are a muffin-baker u know the things with the dry and wet ingredients. Here u simply just use a mix of brandy, orange liquor and red wine as your wet base. Bake it as usual (not more than 20 minutes – its going just dryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy) and voilá.

Having with a couple of garnish its perfect for a SummerSangria (sorbet) or a WinterMulledWine (chocolate ganache)… I cheered up with a “brandy-warm” chocolate ganache, orange peel and ‘sandwiched’ by a nicely bitter orange sorbet…. yummmmmmmm yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…. (for the sorbet i used 100% orange juice with crazy big pulps in it, nice amount of triple sec liquor, some orange peel – which i blanched 3 times in sugarsyrup to loose the bitterness – and using the same blanching sugar liquid to reach the necessary sweetness).

SangriaMuffMuff: makes about 16 individuals

• 260g flour
• 100g cocoa powder
• 170g fat (butter and/or olive oil)
• 300g dark sugar
• 100g white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 350ml alcohol (my ratio: 200 red wine, 100 cointreau, 50 brandy)
• nice touch of cinnamon syrup
• bit of baking powder
• bit of soda bicarb
• bit of salt

Heavenly Brandy-Ganache:

• 100ml double cream
• 150ml full fat milk
• 80ml top quality olive oil
• 250g top quality dark choc
• 50ml brandy (nice one :)))