Apple Hot Toddy

Gustave Flaubert

1 teaspoon simple syrup

2 oz. calvados or applejack

½ apple, baked

½ oz. apricot brandy

½ oz. heavy cream

Boiling water, to top

Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Place the syrup, calvados, baked apple, apricot brandy, and cream in a mug and top with the boiling water.

Gently stir, grate some nutmeg over the drink, and enjoy.

The author of Madame Bovary seems to have enjoyed a good drink or two, and might have endorsed one drink in particular, according to Alice B. Toklas, longtime partner of Gertrude Stein, and author of her own cookbook in 1954. This French winter drink might date to the eighteenth century, though Flaubert seems to have added his own spin to it.

The Apple Hot Toddy is a blend of Calvados (apple brandy), hard apple cider, apricot brandy, and heavy cream. Some versions omit the cider and just use the spirits and cream. Either way, this is a very northern French drink (it’s said to come from Pont Audemer, near the mouth of the Seine in Normandy), and a most delicious one, suited to the colder months and perhaps sipping while reading a classic novel.