Home made liqueurs - post your recipes here

[BoysAreLikeRabidDogs]

Christmas Pudding Vodka

1 litre vodka
4 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
peel of 1 orange and 1 lemon
25g each currants, raisins, dried figs(halved if large)

Combine all ingredients in large bowl or jug, then decant into large (they recommend 1.3 litre) sterilised (dishwasher okay) bottle. Seal with cork or screw cap.

Leave for at least 2 weeks in a dark place, shaking occasionally to agitate the ingredients, then use a funnel lined with a coffee filter paper to decant into "pretty sterilised bottles of your choice" (but no info on where to get them!) - add a fresh piece of lemon and orange peel and a fresh cinnamon stick if you like.

With thanks to Bramshott

[MOrticiaAdams]

O M G!!! That sounds bloody lovely! Thankyou Bramshott and thank YOU Boys, me old mucker, for posting it!

Just bottled 10 bottles of homemade red wine this morning, so I've got something else to do now!

[SqueakyPop]

Sloe gin

Fill a gin bottle with pricked sloes. Add a wine glass of sugar. Top up with fresh gin.

Give it a shake about once a week for a couple of months, and drink in the new year.

[brookeslay]

Irish Cream

450ml whisky
1 400g can evaporated milk
1 400g can condensed milk
1 tsp instant coffee
½ tsp vanilla extract
60ml Kahlua (optional)

PREPARATION:

Whizz everything together in a blender for 1 minute. Bottle and store in a refrigerator.

Cranberry and Raspbery Vodka

1 litre vodka
600g fresh cranberries, roughly chopped (if you can't get fresh cranberries, use frozen, or substitute with any other seasonal berry)
600g fresh raspberries
900g sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

PREPARATION:

1. Put everything into a glass container and stir gently until the sugar dissolves. Cover tightly and store in a cupboard for 3 weeks.

1. After three weeks, sieve the liqueur into a clean, sterilised container, pressing the fruits through with the back of a wooden spoon. Strain this sieved liquid through double muslin, squeezing the juice from the pulp.

1. Leave for a couple of hours to allow sediment to settle, then filter again, this time through a coffee filter. This could take several hours, so top up the level whenever you pass by. You may need more than one filter. All this is necessary to avoid cloudy liquid. Pour into clean bottles

[browntrout]

i know i sound like a right heathen but im not very good at neat spirits. would the xmas pud vodka be drinkable without a mixer? Am guessing the additional ingredients will sweeten it up a lot but just in case it is still too hard to get down?! it sounds so lovely i really want to try it.

[BoysAreLikeRabidDogs]

You could mix the Xmas Pud vodka with tonic or Nice Lemonade, but it's very lovely on it's own, sweet and sticky.

[browntrout]

sounds utterly gorgeous - thanks so much!

[brookeslay]

From Delia website

Sicilian recipe for Mandarin liquer.

Peel 10 mandarin oranges, and separate the segments. Do not remove the seeds, and liquidise segments with seeds inside, in food processor with the peel of one of the oranges.
Place in bowl and add 3 cups of sugar. Mix well, cover with plate and refrigerate for 2 days, stirring twice a day.

Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium high and keep rolling boil for approx 20 mins until the syrup coats back of spoon.

Cool for 15 mins. Put into sterile bottle and add two and a half cups of 80 per cent proof vodka.

Keep for one month, then strain through sieve at least four times. It will become thinner after each strain. Bottle

[expatinscotland]

orange liquer

peel 3 large oranges, leaving as much of the white rind on the fruit as possible.

place in a lidded jar.

add 3 cups brandy.

cover tightly and let sit for 3 weeks at room temp in a dark place.

remove rind.

stir in 1 cup honey.

cover again and let sit in the dark at room temp for 3 days.

strain off clear portion to give away and use cloudy portion for cooking.

[BoysAreLikeRabidDogs]

mmmmmm

[GentleGarotter]

Atholl Brose

In to an empty whisky bottle add-
toasted oatmeal
a cup of honey
a tub of double cream
top up with whisky
give it a good shake before drinking

or

1 cup of fresh rasperries or brambles (put them into an empty whisky bottle
1 cup of sugar
top up with whisky
leave it to sit for a year

[Mercy]

Does the oatmeal break down?

[phdlife]

we made Plum Gin once - from memory and going back about 11 years:

Fill a large jar with plums (maybe 1lb? 2?) - I used a HUGE jar, anyway
add 2c sugar
Pour over 1 litre of gin

upend the jar once a week

think you had to leave it a couple of months

mind you dh and I couldn't bear the end result, gave it all to a friend who loved it at a party

[GentleGarotter]

I use pinhead oatmeal as it has a strong taste but the brose we make sees the oatmeal settle at the bottom.
It does look like Brasso when it is ready but tastes really lovely.

[expatinscotland]

i strain out the oats, but do use pinhead as well.

[GentleGarotter]

We make an oatmeal drink if anyone is feeling poorly by soaking the pinhead oatmeal overnight in lots of water, strain it the next day and add honey and a little lemon to it.
It is really nice.

[Hassled]

How musch oatmeal are we talking? My father used to make Atholl Brose and I've searched for recipes since he died, but I'm sure oatmeal didn't feature in his version.

[Bramshott]

Ooh, ooh I am famous!! Did you like it BoysAreLikeDogs? I was just trying to work out whether to make it this year too.

Now at the bottom of my larder this year I have:

BLACKBERRY GIN
1lb blackberries to 1pt gin
approx 1/4lb of sugar to every 1lb of blackberries, depending on the sweetness of the fruit.
Combine in a bottle (you need twice a much bottle space as the volume of the gin if that makes sense) and shake every other day for a month and then occasionly. Bottle after 2-3 months - i.e. for Christmas

This is great because the blackberries are free (there are still some on the bushes if you're quick). I used Sainsburys Value gin at £6.00 for a bottle - although I did have an embarassing moment when I met 3 different mums from school in Sainsbury's whilst brandishing Value Gin in one hand and a baby in the other [hic]

[expatinscotland]

like a teacup full is what i use.

you can buy it ready made and it's not got the oats, but the traditional recipe has.

it's from a legend.

that the Earl of Argyll (ye old Campbells) fell out with the Earl Atholl (Murray) back when they were still earls and not dukes as they are now.

and Atholl chased Argyll back here, to the West.

but Argyll (their name doesn't mean crooked for nothing! ) escaped him.

so Atholl set siege on him, tricky considering the location of the Argyll seat.

Atholl introduced whisky and oats and cream and honey into a well feeding the house of Argyll and then attacked when they were all a bit worse for the wear.

a successful attack, apparently!

[Mercy]

lol at Brasso!

What is pinhead oatmeal please?

[Hassled]

lol - I come from a long line of Murrays - not the family surname but it has always been used as a second middle name and my father spent large parts of my youth embarrassing me in his Murray kilt (bear in mind I've never actually lived in Scotland despite having a very Scots Gaelic name ). Right, I am going to make Atholl Brose (with oatmeal) this Christmas and we will all think of him - thank you

[BoysAreLikeRabidDogs]

pinhead oats, about halfway down the page

[GentleGarotter]

There is a recipe here with quantities but has no cream in it.

I often wondered why it was called Atholl brose expat but did not know the story.

It is really good for when you feel fluey or really cold.

[KatyMac]

I am sitting here drinking Plum Gin made before DD was born

DD is 11 next month

I haven't had any since I moved to Norfolk (8 years ago)

Gosh is it strong

[GentleGarotter]

at plum gin