I vaguely recall hearing once that French Onion soup came about when Napoleon's army was left with nothing but champagne and onions. Well, thanks to Sandy and a week-plus power outage (goodbye, contents of refrigerator!), we were left with little but packages of crackers and liquor, including champagne and bourbon. We were among the lucky ones; we still had a roof over our heads. So we are thankful, indeed. Anyway, in a classic champagne cocktail, a sugar cube is doused with bitters and the champagne is given a boost with cognac; here, we used vanilla as the underlying flavor and jacked it up with classic American bourbon. Once the power comes back on we'll upload a photo containing the homemade sugar cubes; in the emergency, we just used the regular sugar cubes with vanilla drops. By candlelight. With blankets.
Cheers! —wssmom
The name of this cocktail is a mouthful: big name and big on flavor. Wssmom is a mixologist extraordinaire -- she turned simple into profound in just a few easy steps. I opted to use pre-made sugar cubes; I have demerara cubes that I dipped in vanilla paste to really boost the vanilla flavor. The vanilla sugar cube with the bourbon and prosecco was delicious and packed a punch. The cube not only gave it a whisper of sweetness but a subtle undertone of vanilla, too. Garnishing with a vanilla bean is the finishing touch to a lovely cocktail that I hope you try. It's well worth it. —sdebrango
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