Apple Pie Manhattan

Nick was kind enough to invite me to contribute to this site, but it took a while for me to feel like I had anything to contribute beyond "drinking good!" I haven’t been very adventurous lately, booze-wise. Unless you count putting a dash of bitters in some bourbon and calling it an Extra-Dry Manhattan, I'm not big on making up drink recipes; I spend too much money on liquor as it is, I don't want to risk wasting it on experiments. 

But I wanted to do something with some apple cider I'd bought for a recipe (I'm not a fan of apple juice or cider, but it's great for cooking with) and I remembered the bottle of cinnamon whiskey at the back of the bar we'd bought on a lark that was pretty undrinkable on its own. Apple pie! It worked.

Photo by Adam Grosswirth

4 oz bourbon

2 oz sweet apple cider

1 oz cinnamon whiskey

2-3 dashes cranberry bitters (optional)

cocktail cherries (optional)

candied ginger (optional)

tart apple, such as Granny Smith (optional)

Pour all liquid ingredients into a shaker. Shake with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass with cherries. Garnish with a piece of candied ginger and/or a slice of tart apple.

Photo by Adam Grosswirth

I used Maker’s Mark, which is my go-to bourbon, but if you want a stronger bourbon flavor you could use something like Knob or even a rye.

The cranberry bitters were another thing I happened to have in the house, an “ooh, neat!” impulse buy that I can’t really do much with. It seemed like a good Thanksgivingy touch, and it was.

I also tried this with a spoonful of ginger simple syrup, thinking a little sweetness would cut the harsh Fireball nicely, but I found it too syrupy. If you like a sweeter drink, though, that’s a good solution. If you want to get fancy, you could rim the glass with cinnamon sugar or maybe ground ginger and sugar. I am too lazy for that, so let me know how it turns out if you try it!

There’s really no reason for this drink to have cherries, except that I love them and I put them in basically anything with bourbon, including otherwise straight bourbon. I make my own, not because I’m a snob (I love me a classic bright red maraschino cherry) but because they’re so easy and awesome. I use this recipe, ideally with sour cherries (I hoard and freeze them during their very short season at the farmers’ market) but Dole frozen cherries from the grocery store are great too. Hmmm, maybe I should try to concoct a cherry pie Manhattan next?