What is dishwasher vodka and, is it a good gift?

[lighthousekeeping]

I've seen it come up on here before but I can't work out what it is. Can you get away with using the cheap stuff?

I'm about to embark on making some of these soon for SIL and BILs Xmas presents.

There is a Xmas Pudding Vodka that I've seen mentioned on MN a few times too so might be worth doing a search for that as everyone says its fantastic.

Re: bottles - Wilkinsons do the Kilner brand bottles 500ml were about £2.75ish. They also had smaller ones (330ml?) but they just looked too small especially if the recipient is likely to be tasting/sharing them with others or pours generous measures!

I've got loads of these on the go at the moment, fruit ones rather than sweets. And I haven't got a dishwasher so have just got them in big kilner jars and shake them every day. Blackberry gin, mixed berry vodka, ginger brandy and Christmas pudding rum. All taste amazing but the rum is out of this world. I'm slightly worried none of them will make it to be Christmas presents because I'll start tasting them and won't be able to stop.

Here's the recipe I've used for the Christmas pudding rum, I'm sure you could use brandy or vodka or anything really and it'd be equally delicious.

1x 75cl rum
300g mixed dried fruit (I used 100g raisins, 100g sultanas, 100g dried cranberries)
4 dried figs cut in half
75g golden caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2tsp ground mixed spice
1tsp nutmeg
Finely grated zest of one large orange and one lemon

It tasted amazing after just a week (I do a weekly taste test) and just gets more delicious the longer it goes. Be warned the fruit does suck up a lot of the rum, I've had to buy a second bottle and add it in to get my required amount. You can use the fruit for ultra boozy mince pies after though so its not wasted.

Pear drops work well, as do sour apples. I did it the non-dishjwasher way - stand it in a bowl of hot water, then leave it a couple of weeks and sieve

This is the best thread ever! Am going to try out Xmas pudding rum.

Just a wee word of caution - I tried this fell for it last year (without a dishwasher, if you leave it weeks and just shake it each day it still works) and when I bashed the sweets it was like Night of the Living Dead but Sugary in my kitchen. I have never twatted anything so hard or made so much mess for so little result in my life
It is much much simpler to get a bottle or jar with a wide neck so the sweeties just fit down it

Im confused. Do we sieve it afterwards?

I ended up with a layer of scum on top of mine that I sieved off

I think that this was the method I followed

Oh I've just remembered! I did a cherry one and a spicy one a few years ago. Just shoved the flavourings in the bottle and left em in the cupboard.
The spicy one was lush. I know I used vanilla, and general Christmassy spices. The cherry one was using a packet of dried cherries, and possibly some sugar.
Cherry vodka is sooo good with coke :)

No need to sieve afterwards because the. sweets dissolve.

I'll strain mine through a coffee filter I think then when I decant them into gift bottles I'll probably add a token ornamental cinnamon stick or something

If you do chocolate based vodkas in the dishwasher (Mars Bars, After Eights, Aeros etc), you don't need to sieve them afterwards, OP, because the heat of the dishwasher cycle melts the chocolate into the vodka.

I can't answer for 'hard sweets' or other types, 'cos I've never done them.

These sound amazing - love the idea of the Christmas pudding rum.

We made some tayberry vodka last year thanks to a friend's prolific allotment, two big kilner jars full. One has gone, but the other is still "stewing", and is hopefully amazing by now - we'd put so much sugar in the mix that it went really syrupy,somewhere in between Ribena and port.

That reminds me, I've still got the fruit from the first jar in the freezer - that's going to be one hell of a pavlova at some point...

What about mint?

Minty vodka?

Mmmm?

There's always chocolate or coffee 44

Take 1 orange and stab it 44 times
Insert 44 squares of chocolate or 44 coffee beans into the slits in the orange
Place in large jar with 44 sugar cubes and add vodka to cover ~ 1 litre

Leave in coolish place - but not fridge for 44 days then bottle and consume

Warning - if you put the choc one in the 'fridge it is difficult to pour.

The Christmas pudding rum and/or vodka is to die for in eggnog

Ive also made kahlua and Baileys this year. Im gonna have to make more before Christmas because I got a bit carried away tasting them:o. They actually do taste like the real thing too and both made with the cheapest bottle of booze I could get my hands on

Ive got the coffee 44 steeping away in kitchen, it will be ready beginning of December but preliminary tasting indicates its all for ME :o

I think I may try this with those cinnamon red hot candies. The colour should be a gorgeous red for Christmas..

Kola cubes are fab in this. Don't forget to put dishwasher on a high setting though!

You can also make 'savoury' ones, IYSWIM. I know someone who has made a chili vodka and a garlic vodka! They're not dishwasher ones though, you just leave the vodka to soak up the flavours.

You think it would work with jelly beans, the pina colada ones to be precise? Mmmmm

Or kiwi fruit?

2much! jellybeans..what a brilliant idea! I'm wondering if I could maybe use cinnamon sticks, instead of the hotties. What about candy canes?

Problem with jellybeans is that there is gelatine in them, so you get a nasty scum that you have to skim off - and I never quite manage to get all of it. It doesn't matter if its for personal consumption - but would look pretty gash as a gift.

My most sucessful have been Rhubarb and Custard, Cough Candy Twist, Galaxy, Mint Aero, Skittles (but scummy), Kola Cube, Cherry Drops and Werthers.

I love R&C, Choc and Werthers as a liqueur/sipping vodka and Skittles, Kola Cube and Cherry Drops as a mixer with coke/lemonade.

Skittles it is then. This will be my first attempt at some handmade gifts for Christmas.

OMG...marking my place. just got to decide which flavourings I want to use now. Like the idea of doing a christmas spiced vodka.