December has already begun, and I'm feeling really exited about the little bunch of holidays that are coming because I'll have more time for myself and for my loved ones. There's so much I'd like to do, and it's difficult during the year, you know, with so much work, working two jobs, trying to keep my Hive blog decent, and the house--oh, the house!--So many things to do, so little time. Anyway, today I want to share a little experiment of mine that turned out pretty well: pineapple cream rum punch, which is like blending pineapple compote, pastry cream, rum, and spices, all homemade. Delicious!

We Venezuelans have a young tradition of cream punch. It started out in 1871 with Eliodoro Gonzalez who created the first commercial leche de burra that wasn't actually leche de burra for two reasons: first, the original leche de burra has no rum in its formula, and second, it was cream made of cow's milk plus egg yolks and spices, something like American eggnog. Eliodoro Gonzalez called his product Ponche Cream (cream punch).

Now, our cream punch is similar to the popular Irish cream, but we use cane rum instead of whiskey, this one among other differences.

Anyway, we like to share these #amazingdrinks with family and friends all the year round, but specially every Christmas.

I've made a version of Venezuelan traditional cream punch by adding pineapple-- besides making it my own way. It happens that every family has their own recipe for homemade cream punch.

This one I took to a special homemade pizza with pear slices to a pre-Christmas get-together. Actually, I made two bottles, as one was for my house 😁 But I will present you with the recipe for one bottle, i.e. 1 liter.

Below you can see the one I left in my house. As more than three days have gone by ever since I prepared it, it's turned a little thicker. And I should warn you in case you've never made cream punch, it can be hard to get it out of the bottle if you try to make it thicker and then put it in the fridge. I keep this one out of the fridge.

Ingredients

For 1 liter of pineapple cream rum punch:

• 2 1/2 cups homemade pineapple compote
• 250 ml condensed milk
• 150 ml evaporated milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Rum to finish filling the one liter bottle, 150 ml approx

Making the Punch

Following this recipe is super easy.

First of all, peel, chop, and blend the pineapple to get two cups of compote. I used my blender.

After the blender has processed the pineapple chunks (with no water), put this thick juice in a pot and take it to cook over medium to low heat, until it becomes very thick, with the consistency of compote. It took me about 20 minutes, and I had to stir it from time to time, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Then strain the compote and discard the bagasse.

Take it to cook again and this time add the egg yolks, condensed milk, and spices. Mix well and cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns thick.

Now, with the heat off, add the evaporated milk and lemon zest and stir for a few seconds. Let the mixture stand until it has lost enough heat to process it in the blender.

Remove the cinnamon stick, but leave the lemon zest. It's time to add some rum. I use a cheap rum, but not the cheapest. It's important that you use some rum you like because it's going to be important part of the aftertaste.

At this point, there were 850 ml of mixture in my blender. I added 150 ml of rum to make a liter.

Be prepared with a sterilized glass bottle to fill it with your freshly made punch. You will also need a funnel. Blend the mixture very well, until it becomes smooth.

You can give it a try right away!

I hope you have found this recipe useful. Remember that if you don't consume alcohol for any reason, punch is also delicious without it. If you want, you can add ginger to make it spicier!

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

Banner by @andresromero 🖤