Chef Thomas
A Proper Hot Toddy
A winter glass of whisky, honey, and lemon, stirred together in a warm mug and carried up to bed when the cough won't leave and the evening has asked you politely to stop.
Culinary Explorer
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A Proper Wassail Bowl
Created by Chef Thomas
Hot spiced ale with roasted apples bobbing on the surface, honeyed and fragrant with cinnamon and orange peel, the oldest winter drink in the British kitchen and still the best.
Beverages
British
Christmas
Holiday
Celebration
15 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr total
Yield8 servings
This is a Twelfth Night drink, for the dark end of the Christmas week when the tree has started to drop its needles and the cold outside has settled in for the long stretch of January. It's older than mulled wine. Older than most things still worth doing in a kitchen. People were warming ale with roasted apples and spices when the word Christmas hadn't been invented yet, and the recipe has survived because the instinct behind it is right: when it's cold and dark, you warm something fragrant on the hob and pass it around.
The trick is the apples. Most people making a wassail bowl skip the roasting and end up with ordinary mulled ale, which is fine, but isn't the same thing. You want the apples baked first until the skins wrinkle and the sugar turns sticky and dark, because it's that caramel that goes into the ale and makes the whole bowl taste of winter orchards rather than just spice. There's an old name for it, lamb's wool, from the way the soft apple flesh frays on the surface of the drink. I like that. A drink named for how it looks when it's ready.
I wrote it down in the notebook the first year I made it properly: "Twelfth Night. Roasted apples. The house smelled of cloves and oranges until the next morning." I've made it every January since. We're only making a hot drink, but there's something about a steaming pan of spiced ale with apples bobbing in it that turns an ordinary evening into something older and quieter and better. Pass it around. Say wes hal. Mean it.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small eating apples
Quantity
6
Cox's, Braeburn, or similar
soft brown sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for the apples
good English ale
Quantity
1.5 litres
brown ale or old ale, not lager
dry sherry or madeira
Quantity
150ml
runny honey
Quantity
100g
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1
whole cloves
Quantity
6
allspice berries
Quantity
4
whole nutmeg
Quantity
1 small
for grating
fresh ginger
Quantity
1 thumb
sliced
unwaxed lemon peel
Quantity
from 1 lemon
in wide strips
unwaxed orange peel
Quantity
from 1 orange
in wide strips
unsalted butter
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small eating applesCox's, Braeburn, or similar | 6 |
| soft brown sugarfor the apples | 2 tablespoons |
| good English alebrown ale or old ale, not lager | 1.5 litres |
| dry sherry or madeira | 150ml |
| runny honey | 100g |
| cinnamon stick | 1 |
| whole cloves | 6 |
| allspice berries | 4 |
| whole nutmegfor grating | 1 small |
| fresh gingersliced | 1 thumb |
| unwaxed lemon peelin wide strips | from 1 lemon |
| unwaxed orange peelin wide strips | from 1 orange |
| unsalted butter | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed saucepan or stockpot, the widest you have
- •Small baking dish for the apples
- •Fine grater or microplane for the nutmeg
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Roast the apples
Set the oven to 180C/160C fan. Core the apples but leave them whole, and score a shallow line around the middle of each one so they don't burst. Sit them in a small baking dish, dot them with butter, and scatter the brown sugar over the top. Roast for twenty-five to thirty minutes, until the skins have wrinkled and gone soft and the sugar has turned into a sticky dark caramel in the bottom of the dish. The kitchen will start to smell of baked apples and winter. That's when you know they're close.
The old name for this was 'lamb's wool,' because the roasted apple flesh, once it breaks apart in the warm ale, goes soft and fluffy on the surface like wool. Don't skip the roasting. It's the whole difference between wassail and ordinary mulled ale. - 2
Warm the ale with spices
While the apples roast, pour the ale into a heavy-bottomed pan, the widest one you have. Add the sherry, the honey, the cinnamon stick, the cloves, the allspice, the sliced ginger, and the strips of lemon and orange peel. Grate in a good amount of nutmeg. Half a nutmeg, maybe more. Set the pan over the lowest heat you can manage and let it come slowly up to temperature. You are not trying to boil this. You are coaxing it. If it simmers, you'll drive off the alcohol and the ale will turn bitter. Keep it just below that point, where the surface trembles but doesn't break.
- 3
Let it steep
Leave the pan on the gentle heat for twenty minutes or so while the spices do their work. Stir it now and then. Taste a spoonful after fifteen minutes. It should taste of warm ale, of orange peel, of something that makes the back of your throat feel looked after. If it needs more honey, add more honey. Season and taste. Then taste again.
- 4
Bring the apples to the bowl
When the apples are roasted and the ale is fragrant, tip the apples and all their sticky caramel juices straight into the pan. They'll bob on the surface like small brown moons. Let everything warm together for another five minutes. The apples will start to break up at the edges and release their soft flesh into the ale. Don't stir them to bits. You want them mostly whole, with a cloudy fluff of apple floating through the drink.
- 5
Serve from the bowl
Ladle into warmed heatproof mugs or small cups, making sure everyone gets a piece of roasted apple in their serving. That's the point. The drink is for sharing, passed around a table, and the apple in the bottom of the cup is the quiet reward at the end. Grate a little more nutmeg over the top of each one. Don't leave the pan on the heat after this or it'll turn sour. Drink it while it's warm.
The word wassail comes from the old greeting 'wes hal,' meaning 'be well.' You're meant to say it out loud when you raise the first cup. I know that sounds daft. Do it anyway.
Chef Tips
- •The ale matters more than anything else here. Use a proper English brown ale or old ale from a small brewery if you can find one. Lager won't do, stout is too heavy, and the cheap stuff will taste cheap no matter what you put in it. This drink has four or five ingredients doing real work, and the ale is the biggest of them.
- •Never let it boil. The moment ale boils, the alcohol leaves and a sour, bitter note moves in that you can't get rid of. Keep the heat low enough that the surface trembles but the liquid never actually bubbles. Patience is the whole technique.
- •If you want to make it without alcohol, swap the ale for good cloudy apple juice and leave out the sherry. It won't be wassail in the old sense, but it'll still taste of roasted apples and spice and it'll still warm a cold evening. Children can have a cup of it and feel part of the ritual, which matters.
- •Warm your mugs first. Cold mugs cool the drink down before it reaches anyone's hands. A minute under the hot tap, or standing in a sink of hot water, makes all the difference.
Advance Preparation
- •The apples can be roasted earlier in the day and left to sit in their baking dish until you're ready. Warm them through briefly before adding them to the ale.
- •The peels and spices can be gathered into a small bowl hours ahead, ready to go into the pan. This is a drink you want to make when people are already in the house, not one to prepare in advance and reheat. Reheated wassail loses something.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 290g)
Calories
200 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
4 mg
Sodium
10 mg
Total Carbohydrates
31 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
21 g
Protein
1 g
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