Cranberry and Orange Gin

If you are looking for a perfect homemade Christmas gift for your favourite gin pals this year, then i have just one thing: homemade cranberry and orange gin liqueur!

This cranberry and orange gin liqueur recipe is really easy to make at home, has just 4 ingredients and is SO delicious. You may even want to make a batch for yourself-it makes for a fabulous dinner party aperitif that looks as spectacular as it tastes.

Ingredients:

• 200g cranberries (fresh or frozen)
• 200g sugar
• thinly sliced peel of 1 orange
• 500-700ml gin

Method:

Take a clean Kilner or Ikea glass jar or bottles and add all the ingredients, pricking the cranberries or gently squeeze the cranberries as you drop them in. 

Add the sugar, orange and gin and shake so all the sugar dissolves. Shake gently everyday for a week. 

You can either decant it then back into a clean bottles or leave it for a little longer if you want more flavour.

Serve: mix with ice, tonic and a twist of lemon for festive G&T or add a dash to prosecco.

Sloe Gin

Meet Prunus Spinosa, ore better known as sloe berries or blackthorn plums. These dark, small and kind of unpopular berries grow in the wild around northern Europe as hedgerows, and  they are particularly common in UK.

Unlike more popular berries, sloe berries are quite tart and astringent, which is why you won't often see them topping a cheesecake. The British, ingenious folk that they are, did find a way to make good use of the wild berry-they steeped it in gin to give the fragrant spirit a bit more personality, added some sugar, and Slow Gin was born! Yay for us!

Sloe gin is a traditional British after-dinner digestif. Smooth and fruity, with its own unique flavour. It's a real autumn and winter treat, flavoured with fruit from the hedgerow, perfect beside warming fires for cosy evenings at home, enjoying the long winter evenings.

This sloe gin recipe needs only four ingredients: sloe, gin sugar and time. There is something wonderful about having a couple of bottles at the back of a cupboard, gently maturing and gaining flavour from the foraged fruit, ready for the great decanting.

I find that leaving the fruit in for a good long while is really worth it; I usually leave my sloes infusing for at least 6 months and decant at the same time as I make the next batch. Don't leave it too long, however. The bottle needs drinking within a few years of decanting. Very old sloe gin loses its colour and flavour.

Ingredients:

• 500g sloes
• 250g sugar
• 70cl gin

Method:

After gathering your sloes, wash and remove any stems and leaves. Dry the sloes with a kitchen towel and freeze the sloes for a couple of days. 

Pop the frozen sloes into a air-tight glass jar, approximately 1.5 litre. Add the sugar and slowly pour in your chosen gin.

Keep the jar in a dark, cool spot. For the first week or so, give the jar a good shake. Once all the sugar has dissolved, leave it in the dark as long as you can beat, three months at the very least. If you can make a year ahead before drinking for the best results.

Finally strain the mixture through some muslin and decant into two clean bottles, and it will ready to serve either on its own or with a mixer such as tonic water.

This gin is lovely on its own or reduced and drizzled onto cakes, but is also a great cocktail ingredients. To make a slow fizz, simply pour 25ml of sloe gin into a champagne glass and top with prosecco.

Mince Pie Martini

With the Christmas season just around the corner, it's time to start feeling a little bit more merry. And what better way to help you get into the festival spirit, then with a festive cocktail!

Mince pie- in a glass! Yup you heard it right. This Christmas-tasting drink tastes and looks delicious.

Ingredients:

For the mincemeat syrup

• 100g golden castor sugar
• 50g mincemeat

For the garnish

• 4 tbsp caster sugar
• 4 tsp mixed spice

For the cocktail

• 4 tsp mincemeat
• 100ml gin
• 100ml sweet red vermouth
• 20ml dark rum

Method:

To make a mincemeat syrup, put 100ml water, the golden caster sugar and mincemeat in a pan and bring to the boil. Cool and strain though muslin into a sieve. Separately, mix the caster sugar and mixed spice, then dampen the rims of 4 martini glasses and dip in the sugar and spice mixture.

Muddle the mincemeat in a cocktail shaker, then add the gin, sweet red vermouth, dark rum, 80ml mincemeat syrup and ice. Shake well and strain into your prepared glass.

Enjoy!

Limoncello

I clearly remembered my first time trying Limoncello-in Sorrento few year ago! The owner of the Airbnb where we stayed welcome us with her homemade limoncello by her family. After that first short I never look back. I bought a bottle of limoncello at the airport and once I finish that bottle I start searching online for homemade recipes. Found and tried several and finally after a few tweaks here and there I am happy with this recipes. I love this and it would make a great hostess gift or a holiday gift as well!

Ingredients:

• 1l Vodka
• 6-7 unwaxed lemons, preferably Amalfi if you get one
• 750g sugar
• 750g boiling water

Method:

Zest all your lemons and pop the zest into a tall jar. Make sure not to go too deep. You want only the zest, not the white portion of the peel.

Add the vodka and seal the jar, adding a layer of cling film for added security.

For the next seven to ten days leave your lemon zest to steep and infuse in the vodka. Every day give your jar a gentle shake to disrupt the mixture slightly.

Add you sugar to the boiling water, stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Leave the syrup cool down before adding the syrup to the zest mixture. If the jar is not big enough, move everything into a bigger jar if needed.

Reseal the mixture once combined and leave to steep and infuse for another seven to ten days. Remember to give the jar a shake every couple of days during this period.

After conducting the very important taste test, strain the mixture into a jug ready to pour into the bottles. Make sure your bottles are clean and sterile and have a good stopper or seal to them. Divide your mixture between bottles. I like to decorate my bottles with ribbons and brown paper tags. 

Traditional Eggnog

 

Eggnog is a traditional drink dating back hundreds of years. Eggnog historically also known as milk punch or an egg milk punch  when alcoholic beverages are added, is a rich, chilled, sweetened, dairy-based beverage. It is traditionally made with milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks and whipped egg white. Spirits including rum, whisky, brandy and bourbon are commonly added. It may also be served with sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg.

Eggnog is hugely popular in the US and Canada - and in recent years, it's become more popular in the UK as well.

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg yolks
• 75g sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 whole clove
• pinch cinnamon
• ½ cup double cream
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp whiskey/bourbon, or to taste
• 1 tbsp rum, or to taste
• 2 egg whites, optional

Method:

In a large bowl, use a whisk or an electric mixer to beat egg yolks until they become somewhat lighter in colour. Slowly add the sugar, beating after each addition. Beat at high speed or whisk until fluffy.

Combine milk, clove and cinnamon in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Slowly heat on medium heat until the milk mixture is steamy hot, but not boiling.

Add the eggs by slowly adding half of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly while you add the hot mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook the eggnog on medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to thicken slightly, and coats the back of the spoon. It helps to have a candy thermometer, but not necessary; if you have one, cook until the mixture reaches 70ºC. Do not allow the mixture to boil, or it will curdle (if the mixture does curdle you may be able to save it by running it through a blender).

Remove from heat and stir in the cream.

Strain the mixture through a mesh strainer to remove the clove and and curdle bits that may have formed. Let cool for one hour.

Stir in vanilla extract, nutmeg, whiskey/bourbon and rum. Feel free to omit for kid-friendly eggnog and proceed to chill.

Optional: If you want to include egg white, beat with electric mixer until they reach soft peaks. Add a teaspoon of sugar and continue to beat until they reach stiff peaks. Gently fold into eggnog.

You can also reheat the combined eggnog and egg white mixture until it reaches 70ºC, then remove from heat and let cool, then chill. The mixture will lose some of its fluffiness from the beaten egg whites, but not all, and the eggnog will be much airier than without the egg whites.

Homemade Blackberry Liqueur (Crème de mure)

Easy!!! It's simply a combination of blackberries, red wine, sugar, water and vodka. You simply mash a quantity of clean berries and then leave them to macerate for a couple of days with a bottle of red wine. Use a medium bodied wine such as Merlot, Shiraz or Tempranillo

Most of the liqueur I have made have three components: vodka or gin, sugar and fruit. Limoncello is made from rind, vodka and sugar and the sloe gin is made combining sloe with gin and sugar. This one? Totally different. I researched several recipes and it seems there is s tossup between using brandy or red wine. I chose red wine because I imagine that wine and berries would taste amazing but also I thought it would produce a deep, rich colour and I was right!

The biggest difference between tis recipe and other liqueur recipes is that there is no time requirement like they have before the liqueur is ready to drink. In other liqueur that I made, the fruits has to steep in the vodka or gin for several weeks but not this blackberry liqueur.

What I love about these liqueurs are how versatile they are. Use them in cocktails, serve chilled as an aperitif, or simply over ice topped champagne or sparkling soda. 

                                Cheers!!!

Ingredients:

• 700g blackberries
• 1 bottle red wine, medium bodied (standard 750ml size bottle)
• 300g sugar
• 120ml vodka or gin

Method:

Put the blackberries in a large glass or ceramic bowl and pour over the red wine. Use a potato masher to mash the berries and release the berries.

Cover with a clean towel and leave it macerate for 48 hours in a cool place*. Give the berries a little mash every now and then if you remembered!

Strain through a wire mash sieve to remove the berries, then strain again through cheese cloth to ensure all seeds etc are out.

Pour into a a large saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer on a medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the vodka or gin, and then leave to cool completely.

Pour into clean, preferably sterilised, bottles.

Store in cool, dark place. It can be enjoyed immediately, but will keep almost indefinitely if in a sterilised bottles. 

Note: *

If you live in hot climate and don't have a cool area in the house, then keep in the fridge.

Can use frozen berries but need to defrost them first.