By Aillinn Brennan • Special to The Current
The Nuttiest Pie There IS!
Pecan, featuring Americas native nut, became a favorite in the twenties with the recipe printed on the Karo Corn Syrup can. When you’re whipping it up this year, add 2 teaspoons of espresso powder and 3 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips to update this favorite. For a bold, masculine pairing, try the slightly sweet, high octane, 90 proof bourbon, Knob Creek, Smoked Maple. It is be a match made in heaven with sweet dreams awaiting.
Sweet On Sweet, It’s SWWEEEET!
Apple Pie or a homey, way easier to make, peach cobbler from the last of the farm stand season’s pears, will pair perfectly with a sweet white wine like a German, Spätlese Riesling. Spätlese refers to grapes being harvested late in the season, so that they become supper ripe. Fermentation is stopped when the appropriate sweetness is reached. If you want to go with even sweeter, go for an Auslese. If your thinking your guests are up for a more exotic contrast, look for a Spätlese Gewurztraminer. This wine will add notes of spicy ginger and luscious tropical fruits bring the pie, sky high! Bonus, delight as your guests try to pronounce the unpronounceable. And if there is white chocolate about, add to plate, it will be great!
Oh No I Can’t Eat Anymore
But there’s pie. The Italian digestif amaro will settle your stomach so you can bring on the pie. Amari, the plural because there are lots of them which are ubiquitous on the liquor store shelves these days. Fernet Branca the supper hipster amaro du jour, will go HORRIBLY with pie because of its intense menthol, almost gasoline flavor. Campari, the famous, Fellini film evocative, red bitter one, will also be a NO GO with pie. It is much more suited to be sipped as an aperitif, before the meal. So, with pie? The one to try. Meletti Amaro, is perfectly sweet and balanced with flavors of saffron, cola, clove, licorice, bitter orange and chocolate. It’s the perfect pairing for Thanksgiving’s dessert star, pumpkin pie!
No, No, No..
….biting and putting back the dark chocolate coconut, you thought was a truffle. A beloved, albeit, last minute pharmacy host gift is the box of Russell Stover chocolate that is sure to arrive at your spread. And let’s face it some people are just chocolate people who will be happy nibbling especially it they are sipping Port, preferably out of a set, or miss matched, dainty little glasses that you scored for cheap at a garage sale. This sweet, fortified wine from the Douro Valley in northern Portugal is rich with jammy ripe raspberry, blackberry, red currant, espresso and coco flavors. And if you have one of those weird, “I don’t do dessert” people, give them some cheese. It’s guaranteed to please.
Nutty friends, friend bourbon. Chocolate lovers on this everything nice is spice holiday, port is the retort! Long live the meal, viva l’Italia, amore for Amari! And it’s pronounced….. schpeet-lee-se ge-voortztre-mener.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Aillinn Brennan is proprietor of The Marion Hose Bar located at 16 W. Broadway in Jim Thorpe.
For more visit www.marionhosebar.com
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