This may seem a little out of season, but it works if you have a lot of later season raspberries, or do like I did and cheat, buy frozen berries from the supermarket.
Last year we tried this with fresh supermarket berries because we left it too late to go to the pick your own, it was nice, but not as fruity as I would have liked and rather expensive. Froxen berries are much cheaper and they seemed riper.
I started this a few weeks back as it will be bottled up for Christmas presents, but there is still time to make it before Christmas.
I got a little overenthusiastic with the quantities of berries and sugar because I like it sweet and fruity, you can, of course, adjust to suit your tastes.
You will need:
2l Vodka
1.5kg Raspberries, fresh or frozen
750g Sugar, most recipes seem to use granulated, but I had caster to hand and can't really see that it matters
Demijohn or large jar with a good closure, significantly larger than your quantity of vodka
A funnel if your demijohn/jar has a smallish opening
Ignore the random stuff that lives at the back of the worktop, that is not involved.
Weigh out the sugar, use the funnel to pour it into the demijohn, do this first when it is all nice and dry means the sugar does not stick to everything.
Add the berries to the demijohn. They are less squishy if you do it when they are frozen, but you get very cold fingers, whether you prefer squishy or cold is up to you, don't get frostbite!
Use the funnel to pour in the vodka. Close the top and give it a good swirl around to mix the sugar in.
Covering it will help to keep the colour. Give it a swirl a couple of times a week to start with, once all the sugar is mixed in you can just let it sit. Obviously keep an eye out for any signs of it going iffy.
After two to three months it can be strained through a jam bag and bottled up. It is meant to improve further with age, so last year's is even better than the fresh stuff, but I have not had any long enough to test that.
Other fruit can be substituted in, blackberries and sloes both use the same process.
Yummm {hic} but definitely yum :)
ReplyDeleteI've done this with Pinapple and it is YUM. I don't strain it though...the pinapple looks so pretty in the container. I will def. need to try the rasberry.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Ooooooh...yummy!
ReplyDeleteI laughed when you said you hadn't kept any long enough to test the 'better with age' hypothesis! I have a cake recipe that has a footnote which says, "I think that this will keep up to two weeks if refrigerated...but I've never actually managed to keep it that long"!!
If it's good...what are we waiting for?!?!!? : ) XXO-