Everyone knows about sangría, but I, for one, had never heard of hipocrás, or garrapiñado, until I came across the recipe in La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas. It is an ancient drink, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, but unlike mulled wine, it is served chilled, not warm. According to Casas, King Charles I of Spain and Henry VIII of England liked to have it with their desserts, so we tried it for dessert too, along with some cinnamon and lemon cookies, the base recipe for which I also found in her wonderful book.
There are many ways of making hipocrás. You can use red wine or white. (Penelope Casas prefers the white, so we followed her advice). You can include peaches, nectarines or apples. It is only lightly sweetened, and it does not include strong spirits, the way American recipes for sangrías often do, so it's light and aromatic and refreshing, not at all heavy or overpowering.
You could change the proportions of spice too to suit your tastes or the dessert you're serving.
Here's what I did:
In a pitcher I mixed
one bottle of inexpensive white rioja
two slices of lemon
2 tablespoons of sugar (I bet it would be even better with honey)
5 cloves
1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
1 Granny Smith apple, cut into wedges
two coin-sized pieces of ginger
I covered the pitcher and let it sit in the fridge for four days. I strained it just before serving.
According to Penelope Casas, hipocrás will last for months in the fridge. (Ours won't be around nearly that long). It is best to let it sit several days before drinking it though, to bring out the flavors of the spices.
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