Café Brûlot

Café Brûlot is a nice, warming after-dinner coffee drink this time of year.

It comes from the French Quarter of New Orleans.

It's flambéed, too- but at home you're not required to perform the tableside dinner theater that you'd find in a restaurant!

The original recipe comes from Gourmet, October 2008. My contribution? Brown sugar instead of white.

Café Brûlot

serves 6-8

1 orange

3, 2 inch strips of lemon zest

2, 3 inch cinnamon sticks

12 whole cloves

1/3 c Cointreau

1/3 c brandy

1 T packed brown sugar

3 c hot, strong black coffee

Peel the orange zest from the orange in one continuous spiral. Stud the peel with the cloves. Add the orange zest and cloves, lemon zest, cinnamon, Cointreau, brandy, and sugar to a medium saucepan. Cook over meduim heat until the sugar is melted and the mixture is hot. Turn off the heat. With a long match or a long lighter, set the mixture alight. Once the flames have died down a bit, add the hot coffee (this will extinguish the flames). Swirl the pan to mix the coffee in and ladle into demitasse cups or small coffee cups.