New Year's Champagne Cocktail: The Toasted Almond Cocktail Recipe

By
Kerry Saretsky
a photograph of Kerry Seretsky, a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Kerry Saretsky

Kerry Saretsky interned at Serious Eats in 2008, and wrote the French in a Flash recipe column. She also writes her own blog on modernized French cuisine called French Revolution Food.

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Updated Sep. 16, 2020

When I was little, I used to insist that my mother keep our freezer stocked with Good Humor's Toasted Almond ice cream bars. Let the other kids play with the Chocolate Eclairs and the Strawberry Shortcakes. For me, it was toasted sweet almond all the way. Those rainbow marzipan cookies are my Achilles heel; if I see one, I eat one. Plain and simple. I love almond desserts; they can be kitschy but are still a rare find. They inspired this Champagne cocktail, a mixture of marzipan-sweet Amaretto and icy Champagne, crowned by a rim of toasted almond sugar. The perfect drink to take you back, while you look ahead.

This recipe makes 1 Toasted Almond cocktail. Two bottles of Champagne will yield 10 to 12 cocktails.

Recipe Details

New Year's Champagne Cocktail: The Toasted Almond Cocktail Recipe

Prep 10 mins
Total 10 mins
Serves 1 serving

Ingredients

For the Almond Sugar:

  • 20 to 25 toasted almonds

  • 1/4 cup sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

For the Toasted Almond:

  • 2 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur

  • Champagne, chilled

  • Almond sugar for garnish

Directions

  1. Make the almond sugar by grinding the toasted almonds, sugar, and almond extract together in a mini food processor until the mixture is homogeneous.

  2. Run a lemon slice around the rims of the champagne flutes. Pour the almond sugar onto a shallow dish, and dip the wet glass rims into the almond sugar.

  3. Being careful to avoid wetting the sugared rim, pour the Amaretto into the bottom of each champagne flute. Top with champagne, being careful not to pour too fast, or the champagne will fizz over the glass, and ruin the sugar rim.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
228 Calories
1g Fat
17g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 228
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 1g 2%
Saturated Fat 0g 1%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 22mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 17g 6%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 15g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 18mg 1%
Iron 0mg 2%
Potassium 113mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)