Butter & Scotch Cocktails

I was super excited to be approved by Abrams Publishing via NetGalley for an advance reader copy of their book Butter & Scotch, which was billed as a dessert and cocktail book. Actually it had so much more – like the Strawberry Basil Jam - and I can’t say enough positive about it. Some of the most interesting and low effort recipes in the book were cocktails, so I gave a few of those a whirl. Not all in the same night, of course…

If You Like Pina Coladas

I thought that I would need a little pick me up while cooking for the Ladies’ Brunch, so I prepared the If You Like Pina Coladas milkshake. The ingredients were easy to find: I got a pint of dairy free coconut ice cream at Whole Foods after one of my reservoir trips and I had several cans of pineapple chunks in the horde cabinet. The rum was a bit tricky; I only had Goslings Black Seal rum and the recipe called for white rum. I figured the substitution would be okay. The measurement of “four scoops” of ice cream was a bit nebulous, especially since I don’t own an ice cream scoop. I used a tablespoon to scoop out the ice cream four times, and ended up with the better part of the pint in my blender! My blender was a bit fussy about processing the hard coconut milk ice cream, but eventually I got a beautiful coconut pineapple milkshake with a slightly distinct taste of rum. That kept me cooking through the better part of the evening. Of course, when I was putting away the bottle of Black Seal, I realized that it was overproof rum!

Teaches of Peaches

The book has several recipes for gelatin shots, all of which are dresed up by being served in fruit rinds rather than paper Dixie cups. The Teaches of Peaches Jell-Ohh shot is unique among these recipes in that it is served in a peach half (or quarter as the case may be) instead of a citrus rind. Since I can’t remember the last time that I made gelatin shots, I decided to give this recipe a whirl for the Ladies’ Brunch. To my delight, the peaches pitted easily and the melon baller worked smoothly. I was even able to rig something up to keep the peach halves level while chilling in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, the gelatin filling didn’t jell in the 30 minutes recommended by the recipe, so when I arrived at our hostess’s house, she put the muffin tray with the peaches in her garage refrigerator. We all forgot about them!

I had a small jar of the gelatin filling left at home, and that seemed to have jelled properly after a day or two in the refrigerator. I enjoyed it as an evening snack once I had finished all my work and had nowhere else to drive. Unfortunately, because I had used the Goslings Black Seal 140 proof instead of the recommended Owney’s Rum, the gelatin tasted very strongly of rum. So much so that it was almost impossible to discern the other flavors. But this was such a simple recipe to prepare that I would definitely try it again – with a much milder rum!

A few days after I tried the leftover gelatin, I got a text message from the Ladies' Brunch hostess about the peaches. She declared them to be "delish"- and didn't mention their tasting too strongly of alcohol. In fact, she said that they were so good that she was going to save two for one of her nephews (who, of course, was of legal drinking age!) And she definitely approved of the idea of making this recipe again.

… The Pain Away

Since I had both peach puree and coconut cream left over from making the Teaches of Peaches Jell-Ohh Shots for the Ladies’ Brunch, I decided to try this drink. Of course, I had used all my rum in my past two experiments, so I had to buy more. This time I checked the label carefully and didn’t buy overproof dark rum, even though it was recommended by the recipe.

Making the drink was very basic: put all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. As usual, it was marshaling the ingredients that was the tough part. After the reservoir, I stopped at the local boutique liquor store (as opposed to the megastore on the other side of town) and bought bottles of both Don Q white rum and Goslings Black Seal rum. Neither of them were overproof. So I had plenty of rum for the drink. And I used just about the last of my homemade peach liqueur in place of the fancy peach liqueur recommended in the recipe. The rest of the ingredients – the peach puree, orange juice, coconut cream, lime juice – were all hiding in various spots throughout the refrigerator.

Since my sink was starting to get out of control again, I didn’t fuss with dirtying a glass by following the rest of the recipe instructions for serving and garnishing. I drank the concoction straight out of the cocktail shaker, which was a relatively nice glass. Again, the drink tasted strongly of rum, almost to the exclusion of the other flavors. And I definitely measured the rum conservatively this time. If anything, I was generous in my measurement of the peach puree. Since I don’t particularly enjoy the taste of rum, I probably will not make this cocktail again.

Ramos Gin Fizz

Naturally, I have a bottle of gin in my refrigerator. That keeps it cool for when I want a refreshing gin and tonic. Since I had bought a carton of vanilla ice cream while I was shopping for the Ladies’ Brunch, I decided to try the recipe for a Ramos Gin Fizz milkshake. I checked Jerry Thomas’s Bartender’s Guide - another advance reader copy on my virtual bookshelf - to see what the normal Ramos Gin Fizz looked like. Although there were six different fizz recipes, there was only a regular Gin Fiz, which was basically seltzer water, confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice and Holland gin. That sounded like a refreshing change of pace to my ordinary G&T, but I was in the mood for a milkshake.

Again, the recipe called for the nebulous “4 scoops” of vanilla ice cream. So I did like I did before, used a tablespoon, and ended up with almost half of the remaining ice cream in the blender. (I had ice cream last week to test the hot honey.) My house gin is Tanqueray, so I used that instead of the fancy dry gin recommended in the recipe. Of course, I substituted bottled lime juice for fresh lime juice because that is what I had on hand. I was more than happy to find a use for the bottle of orange flower water, which I had bought to make grenadine syrup. And, finally, lurking in the way back of my refrigerator, was an open jar of orange marmalade.

Once I had all the ingredients assembled, the recipe was super simple to execute: put it all in a blender and blend until smooth. Unlike the coconut ice cream, the vanilla ice cream blended easily because I had my blender sitting next to my oven and my boiling canning pot. I skipped the whipped cream and orange zest garnish (I can exercise restraint sometimes).

It was fabulous! In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I forgot about taking photos! No alcoholic taste at all, and a nice mild orange flavor. I would definitely make this recipe again – and recommend it to friends.

Honeychile Rider

Because I had recently bought a bottle of Mike’s Hot Honey, which is chile infused honey, I only had to find some passion fruit puree in order to make the Honeychile Rider. I couldn’t find any locally; therefore, I decided that I would substitute Goya Passion Fruit Cocktail. There was only half an ounce in the cocktail, so I didn’t think it would make a big difference. The other ingredients – gin, hot honey simple syrup, lemon juice, simple syrup, bitters – were all on hand. Of course, I used Tanqueray instead of the recommended gin. The recipe actually specified Bittermans ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters, but I’m not a bitters connoisseur so again I didn’t think it would make a big difference to use the bitters that I had on hand. Besides, it was only five drops in a 3¼ ounce cocktail!

This was also a very simple recipe: measure everything except the bitters into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake, strain, serve over fresh ice, top with bitters. I had absolutely no problem with any of that. Especially since I used the bottle of Bittermans Burlesque Bitters that a friend gave me for my birthday one year; that had a dropper built into the cap.

The drink was really good. I accidentally measured twice as much simple syrup as called for, so the drink was slightly sweeter than it should have been. But it wasn’t obnoxiously sweet, especially since there was such a strong kick from the hot honey syrup. Between my computer workspace and my kitchen, I switched bottled lime juice for fresh lemon juice, so the tartness wasn’t there. And I skipped the ice because that was buried in the back of my freezer. I think the smarter choice would have been to have substituted peach puree for the passion fruit puree, rather than substituted passion fruit cocktail. The passion fruit cocktail was very watery, and I think the intent of using the puree was to give the drink some body.

So I made the Honeychile Rider again (on a different night!) with the peach puree and bottled lemon juice. I accidentally doubled the simple syrup because it wasn’t easy to pour such a scant amount from the wide mouth container I had it in. And I still wasn’t ready to excavate the ice from the back of the freezer. Again, the drink was very good - better than the time before. The richness of the peach puree and the tartness of the lemon juice made the drink more complex. They didn’t tame the bite of the hot honey though. It was just the pick me up that I needed to motivate to tackle my evening task list.

The Verdict

I would definitely make both the If You Like Pina Coladas milkshake and the Ramos Gin Fizz milkshake again, although I’d be careful to use regular strength rum in the If You Like Pina Coladas milkshake. Not that I tasted the overproof rum, but the drink went down smoothly enough to notice its effects. Since the Teaches of Peaches Jell-Ohh Shots were so simple, I’d try those again to see if regular rum was less obtrusive in the gelatin filling. Otherwise, I might just steal the method of hollowing out the peaches, using a muffin tin to keep them level, and fill them with non-alcoholic gelatin. … The Pain Away tasted too strongly of rum for me, even though I used regular rums and scant measurements, so I won’t try that one again. The Honeychile Rider tasted overwhelmingly of hot honey syrup, even with the substitution of peach puree for passion fruit cocktail. Since that wasn’t unpleasant, I’d definitely try that one again too.