Almond liqueur

This is a multi-tasking liqueur. You can drink it neat, add it to coffee, use it in baking/desserts or – for extreme naughtiness – reduce it to a syrup in a saucepan and pour it over ice cream!

Mr Portions selected this liqueur as he is a big fan of Amaretto. For this kind of recipe where you want to get maximum flavour from the nuts, it’s best to buy them whole and chop them just before needed. We used this handy gadget to chop the nuts:

Here’s what you need:

½ cup (85g) chopped almonds – make sure they’re unsalted!
Dash of almond extract
1 ¼ cups vodka (we used Smirnoff Blue)
¼ cup Polish pure spirit
Dash of cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar syrup

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

Place all the ingredients in a kilner jar and leave for 2 week, ideally somewhere cool and out of direct sun (obviously, we didn't leave it on the windowsill - it's just for photographic purposes!):

This isn’t the most attractive maturing liqueur you’re ever going to see! Close up just to really highlight its ugliness:

Filter and taste – it might need a little more sugar (ours didn’t). Do this several times until the liquid is free of any nuts. 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.

Here’s our first straining, using a straining bag:

Inside the straining bag:

Our precious liqueur – liquid gold:

Age for a further 2 weeks.

Bottle your now-potable liqueur - if it looks cloudy (ours did) then don't be afraid to filter it once more, before bottling; it's worth it.

These dinky little bottles are ideal for giving tasters to family and friends. Come on...you didn't think we'd give away big bottles, did you???

Cheers!

Time to make, from start to potable: 4 weeks

Yield: approx 1 cup/250 ml