Surviving the Holidays #1 - Alcohol

When it comes to the holidays as a vegan it can be a real minefield. Even as a non vegan, the holidays are littered with social faux pas, frustration, awkward conversation and false enthusiasm (Tennis balls? Just what I wanted!). As a vegan though, you're faced with a series of new challenges that nobody else really has to deal with.

• Sitting around a table with people eating non vegan foods and pretending it's okay.
• Receiving non vegan gifts and feigning enthusiasm even though it's clear that either they've put no effort into the gift, or they have, but still don't understand what veganism is.
• Having to explain for the thousandth time that no, honey isn't vegan, and no, it's not a sect of christianity.
• Convincing your family you haven't died of protein deficiency.

... and the list goes on.

For me, my biggest problem when it comes to christmas nowadays is the gift giving. Trying to live trash free (meaning no plastic or waste), vegan, and minimalist, means that I don't really want a gift. Everything I own serves a purpose, so unless you're getting me food, I don't need anything else, so you're likely getting me something that will take up space.

So while we're talking of food, the main problem with food at Christmas is making sure it's vegan. I've received for 2 years in a row something that isn't vegan, which is a problem. The first year was a Baileys Irish Cream rip off, and the second was a box of chocolates filled with both white and milk chocolate.

I'm not here to complain about Christmas, I'm here to help, so let's get started shall we. In this post I'll be talking about how you can veganise christmas, starting with the most important thing you'll need - Alcohol

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Make Your Christmas Extra Merry

If you're an adult and don't need some form of alcohol to make it through Christmas, you are one of the 1%. But for the rest of us, we need a little something to make such family gatherings less excrutiating, and I know that at this point I'm sounding like I hate Christmas.

I don't, it's just one of those times of year where all the chaos in the world seem to spill over the edge and unleash itself onto my residence. So we have the solution of alcohol. Remember kids, alcohol isn't the answer, it's the question. The answer is yes. (Apologies, I didn't intentionally quote Nickelback)

The Holy Trinity of Christmas, Baileys, Eggnog, Cocktails

I'm not entirely sure that's correct, but I know that people drink all three around Christmas time and I have some great recipes for you.

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Baileys

If you never tried Baileys before going vegan then you're in for a treat. It's a creamy coffee whiskey treat, and I don't even like coffee. There are a few different Baileys like products on the market right now and I suspect more to come.

There's the new Baileys Almande, which has recently launched after a shaky start. Everyone was incredibly excited, myself included, at the prospect of finally being able to buy a vegan version and not miss out. However, it included beeswax on the ingredients list which meant it was a flop with the vegan community. They seem to have recovered it with the release of the non beeswax version, although it has received mixed reviews.

Find it here: http://www.baileys.com/en-us/flavors/baileys-almande.html

The other, and my personal favourite of the two being Besos De Oro, which you can find online or at various vegan related shows. I know personally you find it at UK based vegan shows, as I've met the guy who created it at the Wolverhampton show, but can't speak for the rest of the world.

Find it here: https://besosfoodanddrinks.co.uk/

Now onto the most important version you can get is the homemade kind. Baileys is so easy to make you'll wonder why you hadn't made it yourself before. All you need is coconut milk (canned), whiskey (Jamesons), sugar, coffee, salt. 5 ingredients and you're onto a winner.

Here's how to make it - Be sure to play around with the ingredients to find your preferred taste.

• 2 cans (400g) full fat coconut milk - Make sure it is full fat, don't go with the light version or it won't work properly. I've tried both full fat and light, the full fat reduced beautifully and the finished product stayed together with a minimal amount of separation. The light version separated and created a solid layer of coconut on top and the liquid underneath didn't have the same creamy texture as it was meant to have.
• 1/3 - 1/2 cups brown sugar - This of course is down to your taste, 1/2 cup is quite sweet when you have it with full fat coconut milk, or even light.
• 3/4 - 1 cups espresso - While I was informed earlier that baileys isn't a coffee liqueur I still beg to differ. As I remember it, there was a distinct nutty coffee taste to it. With this recipe, the coffee gives that lovely colour to the drink. I use 1 cup espresso, but 3/4 is definitely enough. If you use particularly bitter coffee, you might want to dial back to 3/4 cup rather than the full cup. Or you can add more sugar to balance it out.
• 3/4 - 1 cups whiskey - Seeing how Bailey's is an Irish drink, I used Jameson's whiskey which is Irish. Got to remain consistent. If you want more of a kick, use the full 1 cup, I used the full one cup because I'm clearly an alcoholic.
• A couple pinches salt - To bring out the flavour and offset the sweetness of the sugar. You aren't looking for a salty drink though of course.

There is a baileys version which is caramel, and one which is specifically a coffee one. If you want to make either of these, it's pretty simple. Tone down on the sugar and use salted caramel essence (salted caramel essence is very sweet). If you want it to be heavily coffee based you can either just add extra espresso, or you could take espresso and combine with sugar in a pan over a light flame to make a coffee syrup and use that with less or no sugar.

How To Make It - Possibly one of the simplest things to make, but has an essence of finesse to things.

1. Combine the coconut milk and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer until the sugar dissolves and it begins to thicken for 10 - 15 minutes. You want to keep stirring every minute or so to stop it burning.
2. Once nice and thick, remove from the heat to add your remaining ingredients. Salt, coffee and whiskey. In my mind if I bring it back to the heat and bring to the boil and give a big stir, it lets me know if the thickness is to my liking, but it thickens a tiny bit while cool.

Pro-tip - Make sure to do it all to taste, bit by bit. Don't waste good alcohol by adding too much of an ingredient (coffee or sugar likely). You can always add more, but you can't take it away.

I believe I found a recipe very similar to mine a few years ago, but can't find who inspired this. It's not entirely my idea of course, I'll have to do some digging. My next experiment with this drink will be chocolate baileys, which I think would go amazing in an espresso martini.

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Eggnog

I'm going to level with you, I find eggnog repulsive. Then again, I find the fact that people play Last Christmas by Wham in October repulsive. Please, keep to one holiday at a time guys, please.

I won't be providing a recipe for this due to the fact that I'd be biased against eggnog and it would end up with a recipe where the method says step 1, make the eggnog, step 2, throw it in the bin. However, I've scoured the internet for both eggnogs which have good recommendations within the vegan community that you can buy, and ones you can make.

Try these

So Delicious Dairy Free Christmas Nog - I see this one crop up plenty and it has people talking about it. Luckily, now we know the people who like eggnog and can work towards institutionalising them. I feel like I'm going to have to put a disclaimer on this post that I'm not the Grinch nor do I actually hate Christmas and the things associated with it. I'm just the person who voices what everyone else is too scared to say, don't kill the messenger, okay?
Find it here: http://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-beverages/nog

Silk Nog - Well, this one is a surprising turn around. I saw it show up a while back and people were raving about it but apparently the corporate evil has taken hold and it has been diluted. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, who knows?
Find it here: https://silk.com/products/nog-original

Califia Farms Nog - I've seen this milk in stores plenty and I hear good things about it, but due to it being in plastic I've not actually tried it. It's usually in the fresh milk section and I've yet to see it as long life, apparently they do a holiday nog too.

An... honourable mention? - I'm not sure if they make it anymore because it's not listed on their website, but I've found a few videos of people trying it. Almond Breeze Nog, I can't find too much information on it so it could be new or a long gone product.
Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Almond-Breeze-Classic-Almondmilk-Quart/dp/B01KNZ4QGA

Making Your Own

These recipes haven't been tested by me as mentioned above, but the reviews speak for themselves, so give them a go.

Recipe by Tasty Yummies: http://tasty-yummies.com/vegan-eggnog/
It had quite the reaction, this review made me laugh. I don't think I've ever been as excited about a recipe as this person, and I quote:

HOLY MACARONI, OMG, GOOD GRIEF LORRAINE……this is an XLNT recipe!!!! I want to thank you soooooooo much for coming up with this one!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Totally awesome!!!

I kind of want to try it myself.

Recipe by The Roasted Root: https://www.theroastedroot.net/vegan-eggnog/
Not quite a shining Good Grief Lorraine, but this one seems to be highly recommended.

Nog lovers unite! The nog nay-sayers will never understand (and are missing out. Obviously.)
Also, I cannot even believe this nog is real–eggnog without the heavy cream and onslaught of egg yolks?? My dreams are coming true! You may think I”m exaggerating. I am totally not.

Or this one

ching ching! I’m cheers-ing the crap out of your nog right now! Lets drink booze!

Recipe by Toriavey: https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/veggnog-vegan-eggnog/
This one has had slightly more mixed reviews perhaps because it's been made with tofu. From the reviews there have been some good suggestions you may want to check out, of course I can't comment on them because I'm no eggnog expert as it is. Perhaps if it isn't to your liking, you could try the suggestions in the comments. Here's one of the reviews:

AMAZING! Just made this and it was delicious. Although, my tummy is not used to tofu, so it was a bit harder on it… But then again, so is egg nog LOL. Tastes very good. Husband and kids loved it!

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Cocktails

Without risking you falling asleep I'm going to keep this one short, as I didn't even intend the rest of the post to be this long, so I hope you're still with me.

To make a cocktail you don't really need anything fancy, just the alcohol and a glass to make it in. Sure, you can get fancy and have a boston shaker, hawthorne strainer and the whole 9 yards, but you can just get by.

As long as you have a bottle with a lid, you can make cocktails. Of course, they may not be quite so sophisticated and the experience of a cocktail is in not just the taste, but the smell, how it looks and sometimes how it sounds (for really pricey cocktails). Don't let this deter you, make some of these recipes.

My two favourites - The white chocolate martini and the notspresso martini

White Chocolate Martini

So you have two alternates for this recipe, the first was the one I've made all along, the second was a recent modification. For the first, all you need is vanilla vodka (I use absolut), and white Creme de Cacao (I use around 25-30% strength). For presentation you'll need Kahlua (a coffee liqueur)

Mix equal quantities of both spirit, start with 1 ounce of each (25ml/1 shot), with ice and shake. Strain making sure you don't have any ice in the drink and it comes out clear. Sink Kahlua into the bottom of the glass for a slight coffee kick to the drink and to add some extra depth.

• For the alternate version - You'll need Frangelico, which is a hazelnut liqueur. Now this is up to you but you can either change the Creme de Cacao out completely and use Frangelico instead, or you can use half an ounce each of Creme de Cacao and Frangelico. For this version I don't tend to use the Kahlua as it's a bit of a mix of too many flavours, but you're welcome to try it out.

Pro Tip In the UK I can't find a vegan white chocolate, however that's a different story in Melbourne. Naturally, it only made sense to rim the glass with melted white chocolate and freeze it for 5 mins or so before serving.

Excuse the presentation, this was taken while tipsy, with the only glass I had, green. You should use a clear glass for this, or a black tinted one. I also didn't think of writing this post when I made the cocktail last.

Notspresso Martini

This is a drink that I don't even know is accurately inspired by the Espresso Martini. I've been making white chocolate martinis for the last few weeks and my friend asked if I would make her an Espresso Martini. I said that I make an amazing one, even though I've never had one before, because, you know... Always aim to impress.

Apparently this is pretty similar to an Espresso Martini, which is great, because I made it on my first go without even looking up a recipe. You may call me god now. Anyway, that's why I call it the Notspresso Martini, because I don't want to appear arrogant.

You'll need - Dark Creme de Cacao, Baileys (Recipe above for a vegan one), Vodka, Cacao Powder.

Again, a simple recipe to make - Take 1.5 ounces Baileys (1.5 shots), 1 ounce Creme de Cacao, 1 ounce Vodka and shake with ice. Shake it well until the container you are using to shake it all in goes nice and cold and a foam develops inside. Strain, making sure no ice gets in the drink.

Now traditionally, you place 3 coffee beans on the top of the foam that remain there while you drink the cocktail. However, this isn't an Espresso Martini and I like chocolate, so I garnished with cacao.

See, that doesn't look too bad. You might even fool a few people, who knows?

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Christmas being only a week or so away, I hope this will help you through the holiday season. Tomorrow I plan to release a food guide for those of you looking to veganise your Christmas dinner. It really is easy, but so many people are uninitiated. If you are having people round for food, or want to make sure you'll have something to eat this Christmas, stay tuned.

If you make any of these recipes, be sure to let me know how they go! Happy Christmas all!