So this is perhaps my favorite culinary concoction from Labor Day weekend – an Orange Julius cocktail. You remember Orange Julius, right? The stands you’d find in malls when you were a teenager serving icy blended drinks that tasted like creamcicles. Perhaps they still exist, but the ones I knew of all closed long ago. I crave that flavor, so we decided to try and recreate it. I remembered Alton Brown had a recipe on his orange show that he called an Orange Delicious (because Orange Julius is a copyrighted name – oops). I used a variation of that recipe as the basis for my drink. Instead of freezing orange juice and using whole milk I used orange sherbet and a bit of heavy cream. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty damn good. We made a pitcher of mix and then allowed everyone to spike their drinks with absolut mandarin as desired.
I never measure anything, but here’s a rough idea:
- 6 cups of orange juice
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 pint orange sherbet
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- zest of 1 orange
Blend it all together, add vodka as desired, and voila. A cool summer cocktail treat. Mmmm!!!