Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits: Innovative Flavor Combinations, Plus Homemade Versions of Kahlúa, Cointreau, and Other Popular Liqueurs (8 page)
Authors: Andrew Schloss
Tags: #liquor, #cofee, #home cocktails, #cocktails, #liqueurs, #popular liqueurs, #spirits, #creamy, #kahlua, #unsweetened infused, #flavored alcohol, #bar recipes, #sweetners, #distilled, #herbal, #nutty, #creative coctails, #flowery, #infused spirits, #clones, #flavorings, #margarita, #home bar, #recipes, #cointreau, #cocktail recipes, #alcohol, #caramel, #homemade liqueurs, #fruity, #flavoring alcohol
You’re walking through a field of grass dotted with wild strawberries. The ground is damp and uneven, a shifting carpet. You try not to tread on the treasured fruit, but every now and then you miscalculate, creating an invisible cloud of strawberry-scented air, and you thank the gods who grace us with gifts for our clumsiness. This liqueur is single-minded: It thinks of nothing but ripe strawberries, and in its simplistic innocence it sings sweetly.
Makes about 1 quart
- 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced, or 1
1
⁄
2
pounds frozen strawberries, thawed - 1
1
⁄
2
cups
Simple Syrup - 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof)
- 1.
Muddle the strawberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the vodka. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of strawberries, about 7 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Santé!
Perfect for sipping on a summer day, for spiking a Cosmo, for dabbing behind each ear.
Ripeness is misunderstood. We tend to think of it as either the presence of sweetness or the absence of tartness, when in reality perfect ripeness contains the perfect balance between the two. Underripe is too tart and overripe is too sweet, even slightly rotten-tasting, but ripeness is just right. Because liqueurs are sweetened, it is easy to err on the rotted side. Adding a bit of fruit vinegar to that sweet elixir restores the balance.
Makes about 1 quart
- 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced, or 1
1
⁄
2
pounds frozen strawberries, thawed - 1
1
⁄
2
cups
Simple Syrup - 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof) - 1 tablespoon strawberry or raspberry vinegar
- 1.
Muddle the strawberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the vodka. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of strawberries, about 7 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the vinegar. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Bottoms Up!
Serve in a tall glass with lemon and lots of ice.
Strawberry and rhubarb are mismatched twins, stuck in the same culinary pram because of their sweet-tart affinity but suffering from boundary issues whenever they are conjoined on the stove. The two cook at wildly different rates, so in recipes that call for simmering the two together, the strawberries inevitably overcook while the rhubarb stays stubbornly crunchy. The obvious solution is to eliminate all texture issues and make liqueur.
Makes about 1 quart
- 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced, or 1
1
⁄
2
pounds frozen strawberries, thawed - 3 stalks rhubarb, chopped, or 10 ounces frozen rhubarb, thawed
- 2 cups
Simple Syrup - 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) light rum (80 proof)
- 1.
Muddle the strawberries, rhubarb, and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the rum. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of strawberries and rhubarb, about 7 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Prost!
Use to spike lemonade or any fruit punch.
Like Roto-Rooter for your head, this drinkable Dremel boosts the pucker of cranberries with a sinus-swabbing blast of horseradish. Don’t let its pretty garnet-tinted glint fool you. This is a powerful concoction. Serve it with orange or grapefruit juice, or simply with a splash of soda when you need to power-wash the old brainstem.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries, crushed
- 1 cup
Simple Syrup - 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof) - 1 (3-inch) piece fresh horseradish root, peeled and coarsely shredded
- 1.
Muddle the cranberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the vodka. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of fruit, about 3 days. Add the horseradish. - 3.
Seal the jar and set aside until the liquid smells strongly of horseradish, about 1 day. - 4.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Santé!
Make a Madras Cocktail (
page 244
) — good for what ails you!
Similar to sour cherries, raw cranberries are packed with flavor that needs sugar to become accessible. To make cranberry sauce or a cherry pie, the fruit is usually macerated with sugar and cooked to make it palatable. Here the process is simpler: Mix the raw berries with sugar syrup, add a fifth of booze, and let time work some magic. The result refracts light like a ruby and bounces about your palate like a Hacky Sack on the heels of an agile teen.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries, crushed
- 1 cup
Simple Syrup - 1 fifth (750 ml/3
1
⁄
4
cups) vodka (80–100 proof)
- 1.
Muddle the cranberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the vodka. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of fruit, about 7 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Santé!
Makes a stellar Cosmo.
Nellie Melba, the once world-renowned prima donna of the Paris and Metropolitan operas, is now better known for lending her name to the popular dessert. The luscious combination of peaches and strawberries was created at the Savoy Hotel in London by Georges Auguste Escoffier, the famous French chef, who served it over ice cream in honor of Mme Melba. The flavor struck a chord with the dining public, and this fragrant liqueur will remind you why. It has a glorious pale-salmon tint and a delicious richness.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1 pint fresh raspberries, or 12 ounces frozen raspberries
- 1 cup
Simple Syrup - 6 dried peach halves, finely chopped, or 3 fresh peaches, pitted and finely chopped, or 20 frozen peach slices, thawed
- 2
1
⁄
4
cups vodka (80–100 proof) - 1 cup light rum (80 proof)
- 1.
Muddle the raspberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the peaches, vodka, and rum. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of raspberries and peaches, about 7 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Sláinte!
Sip after dinner or drizzle over ice cream.
Copycat Peach Schnapps
Peach fragrance is fleeting, which is why peach perfume captured in an imbibable form tastes radically magical. Herbal dry vermouth is added after tincturing to enhance the floral quality of peach. Although you could put everything together all at once, starting out with a high concentration of alcohol speeds up the transfer of fruit flavor into the liquid.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1
1
⁄
3
cups vodka (90 proof ) - 12 dried peach halves, finely chopped, or 5 fresh peaches, pitted and finely chopped, or 30 frozen peach slices, thawed
- 1
1
⁄
4
cups dry vermouth (18% ABV) - 1 cup
Simple Syrup
- 1.
Muddle the vodka and peaches with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten the fruit. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of peach — 3 to 5 days if using dried fruit, about 7 days for fresh fruit. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the vermouth and simple syrup. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
L’chaim!
Mix with Champagne for an easy Bellini.
Genshu is undiluted sake (Murai is a popular brand). With half the proof of distilled liquors, genshu has a similar alcohol concentration to vermouth and is best supplemented with vodka to ensure sufficient alcohol for tincturing. Because of its slightly reduced alcohol concentration, this liqueur needs to cure for more than a week to build full flavor. The ginger tinctures faster than the peach, so I have purposely kept the amount of ginger small. If you want more zip, feel free to use a 2-inch piece of fresh ginger.
Makes about 1 quart
- 1
1
⁄
2
cups genshu sake (18 to 20% ABV) - 2 cups vodka, preferably rice vodka, like Kai (80 proof)
- 12 dried peach halves, chopped
- 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, coarsely shredded
- 1 cup
Simple Syrup
- 1.
Muddle the sake, vodka, peaches, and ginger with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything. - 2.
Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of ginger and peach, 7 to 10 days. - 3.
Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid. - 4.
Stir in the simple syrup. - 5.
Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
Prost!
Serve well chilled by the shot.