Damson plum liqueur

Having these beautiful fresh damsons to pick for free from my parents’ garden inspired Mr Portions and I to use them for something a little more exciting than jam.

Damsons are an often overlooked member of the plum family because people always think of the tiny tart variety that will burn through your teeth at twenty paces. These are more like eating plums and very fruity and sweet.

This is a rich, fruity liqueur – perfect for quaffing during the mists and mellow fruitfulness of autumn. It is syrupy and tastes like alcoholic prune juice; it’s deceptive because the booze isn’t immediately obvious but really packs a punch!

Here’s what you need:

2lbs damson plums (or any other eating plum, such as Victoria)
2 cups caster sugar
2 cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Wash the damsons and pat them dry with a paper towel. Cut them in half and remove the stones – this is pretty easy as the damsons will be soft.

Place the prepared damsons in a kilner jar.

Add the sugar and close the lid. Shake.

Add the vodka and Polish pure spirit and close the lid. Shake.

Leave in a quiet spot, at room temperature for 4 weeks and shake occasionally to ensure the sugar mixes in with the damsons and vodka.

When the month is up strain the mixture using a fine sieve or straining bag. Then move on to a more refined filter either lining a sieve with a butter muslin or a coffee filter (but this can get clogged requiring frequent changing of the paper).

Unlike other fruits used for liqueurs, the damsons do not break down – this is what they’ll look like when you strain them out (they are extremely fiery so only eat one if you’re brave!):

Bottle your liqueur and age for a further month.

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 2 months

Yield: approx 3 cups/750ml

Ginger honey liqueur

Ginger, honey and single malt whisky – for many this would just about be heaven! Mr Portions is a fan of whisky liqueur and viewed this as the ultimate honey-lemon cold remedy...in fact, since we made this it’s amazing how many “colds” Mr P has had!

Here’s what you need:

1 cup honey
1 cup water
3 tablespoons fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped
1 lemon’s zest
1 ½ cups whisky (we used Talisker, as we had a bottle to hand)

Bring the honey and water to the boil – you will notice that a scum will form; this is beeswax. Use a spoon to skim it. Make sure you do this otherwise you might get nasties in your liqueur! Boil the mix for 5 minutes. This is the wax that would be in the liqueur if you skipped this stage:

Add the chopped ginger and lemon zest and boil for a further 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool until the mixture is warm but not hot.

Sieve the mix to remove the solids, including any beeswax you missed on your first attempt:

Pour into a kilner jar along with the whisky and swirl around.

Store in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks.

Strain the liquid through a coffee filter and pour into bottles. The following photo shows the importance of filtering – on the left is the pre-filtered liquid, on the right post-filtering:

Age 2 more weeks, then your liqueur is potable.

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 6 weeks

Yield: approx 2 cups/500ml

Crab apple liqueur

Mr Portions and I are determined to become more skilled in the art of foraging. It’s amazing how many fruits and berries around you in everyday life are edible. There may be no such thing as a free lunch but there are definitely free crab apples – easily identifiable as they are tiny apples.

In the name of research we each took a bite. I gagged more than Mr Portions as they are sour and I have a sweet tooth. The liqueur would definitely need sugar! We picked the crab apples before they got a red blush from the sun – we were looking to make a tart liqueur.

Here’s what you need:

4 cups of crab apples
4 cups caster sugar (I know this sounds a lot but crab apples are mighty bitter!)
2 ½ cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Wash, chop and core the crab apples. This is a bit of a faff as they are small and hard but it’s worth it so share the task and make witty conversation to pass the time.

Place the prepared crab apples in a kilner jar.

Add the sugar and close the lid. Shake.

Add the vodka and Polish pure spirit and close the lid. Shake.

Leave in a quiet spot, at room temperature for 4 weeks and shake occasionally to ensure the sugar mixes in with the crab apples and vodka.

When the month is up strain the mixture using a fine sieve or straining bag. Then move on to a more refined filter either lining a sieve with a butter muslin or a coffee filter (but this can get clogged requiring frequent changing of the paper). Here’s what crab apples look like after they’ve been in a jar with vodka and sugar for a month:

Bottle your liqueur and age for a further month. It was a touch “punchy” after a month but some people liked that – if you don’t, leave if another couple of weeks and try again...it will mellow over time!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 2 months

Yield: approx 3 cups/750ml

Blackberry liqueur.....

...or “Purple Gold” as I think it should be called. This one is a stunner – of all the liqueurs we’ve made so far this is the most luscious, the smoothest, the most quaffable. Can you tell how much I love it? The only thing I’ve ever had that I can compare it to was a 40 year old exquisite port. Yes...it’s THAT good!

Conventional wisdom says that blackberries come into season at the end of August. I commute to work by train and could see lots of ripe blackberries at the end of July. It must be down to the hot summer we had. Sadly, the train driver wouldn’t stop the train and let me get off to pick them, so Mr Portions and I went to our nearest country park and got foraging!

The blackberries available were big, dark, juicy and soft. Wild fruit is always so much softer than commercial fruit. We picked lots more than we needed for this liqueur and feasted on blackberries until our fingers were purple.

Here’s what you need:

3 cups fresh blackberries
1 lemon’s peel
2 cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit
3 cups sugar syrup

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Wash the blackberries and place in a kilner jar. Mash them so they start to release some juice and flavour.

Add the vodka and Polish pure spirit.

Seal the jar and swirl the ingredients round.

Store in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks.

Add the sugar syrup and reseal the jar. Swirl around to ensure contents mix.

Store in a cool, dark place for a further 2 weeks.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or mesh and mash the raspberries to ensure you get as much juice and flavour from them as possible. When you’ve squeezed all the ‘guts’ out of them they will look like this:

Once strained, you can start filtering – line a sieve with a coffee filter; this filtered the liquid very effectively – but be prepared to change the filter several times as it clogs. We found this a particularly laborious liqueur to filter – it took lots of filter paper changes and 6 hours! On the plus side, the gorgeous colour of the liqueur provides some interesting effects on the filter paper:

The liqueur wasn’t full and fruity in flavour after filtering so we aged for a further 2 weeks.

After waiting the extra 2 weeks re-filter and bottle your now-potable liqueur!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 6 weeks

Yield: approx 4 cups/1 litre

Mr Portions’ tart Applicious liqueur

Our last batch of Applicious was delicious (don’t worry – there’s no charge for the poetry), but Mr Portions, being a tough and manly sort, found it a little too sweet.

So here’s our more butch version of it – man’s Applicious! Method, volumes and maturing times are exactly the same, the only difference is the apples used.

Here’s what you need:

4 Granny Smith apples
1 Bramley apple
1 lemon’s peel
1 ½ cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit
1 ½ cups sugar syrup

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Core the apples then coarsely chop – there is no need to peel the apples. Place in a kilner jar and add the lemon peel.

Add the vodka and seal the jar.

Place jar in a cool, dry spot away from any direct sun. Leave for 2 weeks but pick the jar up and swirl it every so often.

After the two weeks has passed, add the sugar syrup then return the jar to its cool, shady place for another 2 weeks. Again, swirl the jar now and again.

When it’s ready to filter your liqueur and fruit will have turned a rich ochre – full of mellow mists and fruitfulness. Strain out the fruit using a filter bag.

Filter the liqueur through a fine sieve or mesh mashing the apples to ensure you get all the juice and flavour out of them.

You will have to filter at least twice to ensure that all the apple flesh is removed and you have a clear, pulp free liqueur. We found that lining the sieve with a butter muslin (you could use a coffee filter but this can get clogged) filtered the liquid very effectively. Clarity is your goal!

Bottle your now-potable liqueur!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 4 weeks

Yield: approx 3 cups/750ml

Carrot ‘cake’ liqueur

When one is friends with a baking luminary such as The Caked Crusader you cannot fail to have some of that cake passion (aka obsession) rub off on you.

Mr Portions told me I was insane for devising a carrot cake liqueur and still makes a ‘puke’ face every time I mention it…but I am nothing if not persistent; I even managed to get him to grate the carrots!

I took the flavours of a carrot cake e.g. carrot, cinnamon, and walnut but also added sultanas for some natural sweetness. The biggest decision was whether to use vodka or rum; while I suspect vodka would have given the purest flavour I thought rum far better suited the warm and spicy flavours. Plus, if I was making a carrot cake I would far rather it contained rum than vodka.

As I type this I am laid low with a heavy cold – this liqueur is soothing my throat better than any medicine. It’s sweet but with a strong kick of alcohol and, even with my dulled senses, I can pick out the sultanas and spice.

Would it be too incestuous to make a carrot cake and include this liqueur in it? Or how about serving it neat, with a cream cheese frosting float?

Here’s what you need:

3 fresh medium sized carrots – we grated them to increase the surface area
¾ cup walnuts – roughly chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sultanas/raisins
1 ½ cups rum – we used golden rum
½ cup of overproof rum
1/3 cup sugar syrup

NB. If you don’t wish to use overproof rum, simply replace it with extra golden rum.

Place the carrots, walnuts, cinnamon, sultanas and rum in a kilner jar and leave for 2 weeks, ideally somewhere cool and out of direct sun. Here are the dry ingredients in the jar:

Here they are after we added the rum. It is acceptable, at this point, to feel vaguely repulsed and doubtful that this enterprise will turn out well:

When the 2 weeks have passed, strain the mix and mash the carrot and sultanas so as to get all the juice and flavour from them.

Do this several times until the liquid is free of any pulp. You end up with something that looks like greasy tomato soup:

I think the contents of the straining bag look like a brain. Stop me if I’m making this all sound too attractive!

We started with the straining bag to remove the major pulp, then we lined the sieve with a butter muslin before moving on to a coffee filter. This took hours (I’m not exaggerating – we had to split it over two evenings) and got clogged many times but filtered the liquid very effectively. This was the point when I started to think, “maybe this won’t end up being poured down the sink.”

Add the sugar syrup and leave to mature for a month:

Bottle your now-potable liqueur!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 6 weeks

Yield: approx 1 1/2 cups(ish)/400ml

Raspberry liqueur

Mr Portions just “happened to have some raspberries” that needed using pronto. Funny coincidence, eh? What better use for them than becoming raspberry liqueur?

Here’s what you need:

2 cups fresh raspberries
2 cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit
1 vanilla bean
Pinch of allspice
½ cup sugar syrup

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Wash the raspberries and place in a kilner jar. Mash them gently just so they start to release some juice and flavour.

Add the vodka, Polish pure spirit, vanilla bean and allspice.

Seal the jar and swirl the ingredients round.

Store in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or mesh and mash the raspberries to ensure you get as much juice and flavour from them as possible. You may have to do this more than once to ensure all pulp is removed. Action shot of filtering:

We found that lining the sieve with a coffee filter filters the liquid very effectively but you do need to change it as it clogs. I always find it fascinating what’s left after straining and filtering – this looks like mincemeat and look how limp the vanilla pod has gone:

Pour back into kilner jar and add the sugar syrup (to taste), maturing for a further 3-5 weeks:

Filter again, and bottle your now-potable liqueur! Although the liqueur is now potable, you might find it a little “robust” and wish to age it a bit longer. I certainly found it a touch punchy for my taste!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 6-8 weeks, although you may wish to age longer

Yield: approx 2 cups/500ml

Applicious liqueur

Apple liqueur is divine! We love it neat, diluted with lemonade or as a component in a cocktail – Applicious Martini anyone?

It is worth spending time filtering your liqueur to ensure it is crystal clear; our Applicious just cries “drink me!”:

This liqueur is soooooo smooth! We are definitely going to experiment with sharper apples (probably a mix of Granny Smiths and Bramleys) because some drinkers found it a little sweet – rather like a dessert wine. However, I have a sweet tooth and it was perfect for me!

Here’s what you need:

5 eating apples – we used Gala for their sweetness but if you prefer tart apples go for Granny Smith
1 lemon’s peel
1 ½ cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
½ cup Polish pure spirit
1 ½ cups sugar syrup

NB. If you don’t wish to use Polish pure spirit, simply replace it with extra vodka.

Core the apples then coarsely chop – there is no need to peel the apples. Place in a kilner jar and add the lemon peel.

Add the vodka and seal the jar.

Place jar in a cool, dry spot away from any direct sun. Leave for 2 weeks but pick the jar up and swirl it every so often.

After the two weeks has passed, add the sugar syrup then return the jar to its cool, shady place for another 2 weeks. Again, swirl the jar now and again.

When it’s ready to filter your liqueur and fruit will have turned a rich ochre – full of mellow mists and fruitfulness:

Filter the liqueur through a fine sieve or mesh mashing the apples to ensure you get all the juice and flavour out of them. We start with a bit of brute force with the straining bag:

This is what was left in the straining bag after we had wrung it dry:

You will have to filter several times to ensure that all the apple flesh is removed and you have a clear, pulp free liqueur. We found that lining the sieve with a butter muslin (you could use a coffee filter but beware this can get clogged and you'll have to change it frequently) filtered the liquid very effectively. Filtering takes time - hours! Ensure you leave enough time as you don't want to rush. Clarity is your goal!

Bottle your now-potable liqueur!

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 4 weeks

Yield: approx 3 cups/750ml