Captain Ghouladas ~ Friday's 5 o'clock Wet Your Whistle Call!

There’s been a mutiny on the pirate ship and the crew is celebrating this Halloween massacre with a bloody good cocktail. The tell tale sign is not the blood on their hands but the stain on their lips as they toss back their Captain Ghouladas. Cheers Matey!

 

Captain Ghouladas

The “bloody rim” is made with the same technique you use to make hard candy. You can use a candy thermometer and these can found at most grocery stores, Michaels Craft Stores or discount stores. Or you can use the Cold Water Method if you don’t have a thermometer.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Karo Syrup
1/2 Cup Water
Red Food Coloring

Oven Mitt

Aluminum Foil 

Directions: 

Place aluminum foil on counter for finished glasses so if there are any drips, the candy will drip on the foil for easy clean up. Candy will come off glasses when soaked in hot water for 5 minutes.

Candy Thermometer Method:

Combine sugar, syrup and water. Heat, without stirring the sugar mixture, until you reach the hard crack-stage of 300 degrees.  Add food coloring.

Cold Water Method:

This method consists of dropping the cooked candy into a bowl of cold water and gauging the temperature of the candy based upon its reaction when it hits the liquid.

Combine sugar, syrup and water. Heat, without stirring the sugar mixture. When the candy mixture boils down and small, frothy bubbles form on the surface of the hot mixture, it's likely in the soft-crack stage. Test at this stage. The candy will form flexible threads when immersed in cold water. The temperature of the mixture is between 235 and 240 degrees now. The next stage will be hard-crack.

When the candy mixture is reduced to nearly all sugar, it's at the hard-crack stage. After being drizzled into the cold water, the candy will form brittle threads that snap when bent. The temperature of the candy will be between 300 and 310 degrees. Add food coloring.


Coat Glasses:

Turn off the heat. Put on your oven mit! While the mixture is still hot, dunk the top of the cocktail glass into the mixture to create the bloody rim. To do several glasses, keep the mixture hot longer by reducing the heat to low. You can make as big a bloody rim as you want by dipping the glass in deep or shallow. I prefer a thinner rim and long drips of blood. Flip the glass right side up to cool. The thick consistency of the mixture will cause “drips” as it hardens on the glass!

WARNING: HOT CANDY WILL BURN YOU! BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU FLIP GLASS RIGHT SIDE UP THAT HOT CANDY DOES NOT DRIP ON YOU! WEAR AN OVEN MITT TO PROTECT YOUR HAND.

Simple Bloody Rims Method – much easier to make and no burn factor but not as dramatic

Corn Syrup “Blood Rim”
Courtesy of Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoons red food coloring

Directions:

Pour the corn syrup in a shallow bowl. Dip a toothpick into the food coloring, and stir a very small amount into the syrup to combine. Hold a glass by the stem, dip rim into the syrup mixture, and turn glass, coating entire rim. Turn the glass upright, allowing mixture to drip down sides. Dip the remaining glasses. Set aside. 

The “Ghoulada” is a spiced up version of a Pina Colada and they go down so smoothly.

Ingredients:

8 oz Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, add more to taste
3 oz Coco Lopez cream of coconut, not coconut milk

2 oz heavy cream
8 oz pineapple juice
2 1/2 cups crushed ice

Directions:

Pour rum, cream of coconut, heavy cream and pineapple juice into a blender with crushed ice. If the ice is crushed it will blend faster and easier than cubed ice. Place cubed ice in a heavy freezer bag and pound until crushed. Blend mixture until smooth and add more pineapple juice if mixture is too thick. Carefully pour into 4 prepared glasses and serve.