Bitter Apple Cocktail

Author Notes

There are only so many things you can do with apple butter, and I needed to think of all of them. That's because I made the slow-cooker apple butter recipe in the Ad Hoc cookbook, which makes six (delicious!) cups. I theorized that its sweet apple flavor and heavy spice—from cinnamon, allspice, and clove---would go well in a bitter, "serious" winter cocktail. The two spirits that the apple butter brought to mind were dark rum, for its syrupy sweetness, and rye whiskey, for its spice. I rounded out the cocktail with Laird's applejack, and (of course!) bitters. (Angostura would work well, but if you have another variety that is heavier on the sweet spices, go for that.) The apple butter adds body to the drink, and the flavor combination works well—a sort of cold, boozy mulled cider. —Michael Hoffman