Liqueur making
I’ve been experimenting with liqueur making for a while. A few months ago I added a big load of frozen summer fruits to lots of cheap vodka and a few hundred grams of caster sugar. Recently I seperated the alcohol off, added a bit more sugar and stuck the bottle back in the cupboard to mature for a bit. We’re drinking it now - it’s not the best liqueur I’ve ever tasted, but since I made it to use up the 5kg bag of fruit that Mark had bought it’s not bad. I’ve bought worse.
I’ve also made Rhurbarb Liqueur which is very nice - again lots of rhubarb, lots of vodka and lots of caster sugar. Stick it in the cupboard for a couple of months, then separate off the alcohol, adjust the sweetness, allow it to mature for a month or two and yum, rhubarb liqueur. It’s best if you don’t peel the rhubarb.
We also tried dried apricots in vodka - they needed something extra so we added a cinnamon stick half way through. Not bad and the apricots were pretty yummy too.
I’ve also had a go at making Blueberry Liqueur - I half filled a passata jar with blueberries, added some sugar and topped it up with vodka. This one seems to need quite a while to mature. A couple of weeks ago I seperated off the fruit and added more sugar but I think it will be Christmas before it’s ready. I expect it will be worth the wait though - the samples are very promising.
I’m currently making Plum Brandy - I decided to try something other than vodka for a change. I took 2 punnets of very ripe English plums (probably a 800g - 1kg worth), cut them in half and removed the stone. I put them in a 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. You need a bottle with a wide neck if you want to get the fruit back out again later. I added a couple of hundred grams of sugar - I’m not sure how much really. Then I added 750ml brandy and topped the jar nearly up to the top with vodka. As I recall I added more sugar after I’d given it a good shake to dissolve the first lot. That’s been stewing in the cupboard for a few weeks now, but is shaping up to be pretty damn good. I think with this one the longer you leave it the better it will get.
At the same time I bought a large punnet of blackberries (they were reduced and needed using). They also found themselves at the bottom of a 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. There wasn’t quite enough fruit so I added three apples as well. You seem to need to fill the bottle between 1/3 and 1/2 full of fruit for it to work well. That’s also currently stewing away. The colour has already drained out of the blackberries and into the alcohol which is now a rich red colour. I’m not convinced that the apples are adding much to the mix though.
And there are sooo many more fruits to experiment with…..
October 14th, 2007 at 04:51 pm
About one month after making the initial mixes I added about 75g of light brown sugar to the Plum Brandy and about 150g caster sugar to the Blackberry and Apple Vodka. Then I gave them a good shake and shoved them back in the cupboard.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Now a month on several of these experiments have run their course.
Firstly the blueberry vodka didn’t wait till Christmas - it’s bloody lovely and I’ve very nearly supped the lot already. I’m now making a much bigger batch with frozen blueberries. I’m also recording how I make it much more thoroughly so I can reproduce it in future. Of course the second batch won’t be nearly as good and I’ll be really disappointed I bet.
Secondly the Plum Brandy has turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The brown sugar made the mixture cloudy - bad move their then. The plums weren’t really strong enough to overcome the brandy flavour (perhaps 1/2 brandy and half vodka would be better in future?) so I added some raisins and sultanas. Then the mixture seemed to be missing something so I added a cinnamon stick which didn’t seem to help so I added some cloves, but perhaps too many and the mixture had a rather earthy aftertaste. In the end I’ve added some mulled wine syrup. Apart from being cloudy it’s not unpleasant - quite Christmassy really. I dunno what to call it though - Adultered Plum Brandy perhaps?
Finally the Blackberry and Apple Vodka - this didn’t really have enough fruit, but did have a fairly pleasant summer fruits taste. It seemed a bit thin though - it was lacking something. As an experiment I added about 8 full star anise wheels for a few days. Wow, they work really fast and after only 3 or 4 days it was ready to bottle. I think if I’d left it any longer the aniseed flavour would have become overpowering. As it is it has a kick of aniseed over a nice fruity taste. Mark really likes it and has already finished the first bottle. If you like Ouzo you’d like this. I’m not that keen on Ouzo myself but I don’t mind a drop of this. This is good recipe for rescuing mixed fruit mishaps.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Oh, and the second lot of Rhubarb Vodka turned out excellent as well. I’m definitely going to buy more rhubarb next year.