Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits: Innovative Flavor Combinations, Plus Homemade Versions of Kahlúa, Cointreau, and Other Popular Liqueurs (25 page)

The combination of caramelized sugar syrup and vanilla bean yields a liquid form of chewy vanilla caramels. Take candy into a sophisticated realm by making a Salted Caramel Martini (shown at right) with three parts vodka, one part Caramel Cordial, and a pinch of fine sea salt. I like using Halen Môn Gold, a flaked salt from Wales that is smoked over oak — delicious!

Makes about 1 quart

• 1 cup vodka (80–100 proof)
  
• 1 cup brandy (80 proof)
  
• 2 vanilla beans (Madagascar or Bourbon), split
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups
  Caramelized Simple Syrup
  

1. 1.
   Combine the vodka, brandy, vanilla, and simple syrup in a quart jar. Stir to moisten everything.
   
2. 2.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of vanilla caramel, about 2 days.
   
3. 3.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
4. 4.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Cheers!
Kick up your heels with a Caramel Mule (
page 255
).

The essence of apple is captured in bourbon and infused with caramelized sugar to create the embodied spirit of a caramel apple. Pair it with apple-flavored vodka for a Caramel Appletini (
page 247
), or spike a cup of warm spiced apple cider for a wintery nightcap.

Makes about 1 quart

• 3 sweet apples, like Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, or Winesap, stemmed and coarsely shredded
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cups
  Caramelized Simple Syrup
  
• 2 cups bourbon (80 proof)
  
• 2 cinnamon sticks, cracked
  

1. 1.
   Muddle the shredded apples and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Add the bourbon and cinnamon sticks. Stir to moisten everything.
   
2. 2.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of apple, about 5 days.
   
3. 3.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
4. 4.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Real butterscotch, a caramel candy made with brown sugar and butter, doesn’t contain any real Scotch. What a rip-off! This recipe is designed to right that wrong. Blended Scotch is combined with milk solids (skimmed from melted butter) and caramel. The liqueur has all of the mind-numbing sugar rush of butterscotch candy upended by the mind-numbing alcohol rush of 10-year-old Highland Scotch.

Makes about 1 quart

• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cups
  Caramelized Simple Syrup
  
• 1
  ³
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups blended Scotch or single malt Highland Scotch (86 proof)
  
• 1 vanilla bean (Madagascar or Bourbon), split
  

1. 1.
   Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. As foam rises to the surface, skim and reserve. Continue heating until the melted butter looks clear and there are pale solids collected on the bottom of the pot. The butter is now clarified. Skim off the clear liquid (you will have about 6 tablespoons) and reserve to use as clarified butter in other recipes. It will stay fresh in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container for 6 months.
   
2. 2.
   Add the reserved foam to the pale milky solids in the bottom of the pan. Add the simple syrup and stir to combine. If necessary, you can heat the mixture briefly to help it come together.
   
3. 3.
   Combine the butter-syrup mixture, Scotch, and vanilla in a 1-quart jar.
   
4. 4.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of vanilla caramel, about 2 days.
   
5. 5.
   Put the mixture in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Any fat remaining from the butter will become solid.
   
6. 6.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
7. 7.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Skål!
A natural flavor enhancer for a Manhattan or an Old-Fashioned.

Rum is the distilled essence of fermented sugar. In this liqueur, this essence is enhanced with the spirit of grapes (in the vermouth) and a wallop of molasses, the corporeal fluid that is left behind when sugar transubstantiates into spirit. The result is wildly pungent and deeply aromatic; it punches up any favorite dark rum drink with its moxie.

Makes about 1 quart

• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₃
  cups dark rum (80 proof)
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cup sweet (red) vermouth (18% ABV)
  
• 1 vanilla bean (Madagascar or Bourbon), split
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cup dark molasses
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups
  Brown Simple Syrup
  

1. 1.
   Combine the rum, vermouth, vanilla, molasses, and simple syrup in a 1-quart jar.
   
2. 2.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes pleasantly of molasses, 2 to 3 days.
   
3. 3.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
4. 4.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Salut!
Try it in a Planter’s Punch or Rum and Coke.

Jaggery, the unrefined raw sugar from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, can be made from sugarcane or date palm. Palm jaggery is soft and spreadable and considered the better-tasting variety, although it is rarely found outside of the Indus peninsula. Sugarcane jaggery is commonly available in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores, most often sold in small pyramidal cakes weighing about 1
¹
⁄
₂
ounces each.

Sugarcane jaggery is very sweet and very hard. Because it does not dissolve in alcohol, you will need to dissolve it in water before using it in liqueur production. Jaggery liqueur tastes like rum but is more floral and grassy.

Makes about 1 quart

• 1 cup water
  
• 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, minced
  
• 12 ounces solid jaggery (raw Indian sugar), about eight 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  -ounce cakes, cut into small pieces
  
• 2 cups dark rum (80 proof)
  

1. 1.
   Put the water and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat to a simmer, add the jaggery, and stir until the jaggery dissolves. Let cool.
   
2. 2.
   Combine the jaggery syrup and rum in a 1-quart jar. Stir to combine.
   
3. 3.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of brown sugar with a hint of ginger, 2 to 3 days.
   
4. 4.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
5. 5.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

L’chaim!
Use in any preparation calling for golden rum.

The raw sugar of the coconut palm was an obscure tropical export not too long ago, but entrepreneurs in Bali have made a thriving business selling granulated palm sugar (they call it evaporated coconut-palm sugar) to health-conscious Americans, touting it as a low-glycemic natural sweetener. You can drink this liqueur for your health, but I encourage you to try it for its beautifully herbal, grassy flavor and rich coconut cream mouthfeel.

Makes about 1 quart

• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups palm sugar
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups coconut milk
  
• 2 cups dark rum (80 proof)
  
• 1 cup lightly packed sweetened flaked coconut
  

1. 1.
   Mix the palm sugar and coconut milk in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let cool.
   
2. 2.
   Combine the syrup, rum, and coconut in a half-gallon jar.
   
3. 3.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of brown sugar and coconut, 3 to 5 days.
   
4. 4.
   Put the mixture in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Any fat from the coconut will become solid.
   
5. 5.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
6. 6.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Prost!
A good reason to start drinking Coconut Mojitos (
page 243
).

If New England had a signature liqueur, this would have to be it. Redolent with molasses and maple, it is tangy and sweet, like one of those discus-sized molasses cookies baked at the cozy B&B tucked away two blocks off the town green.

Makes about 1 quart

• 2
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups Irish whiskey, Scotch, bourbon, or rye (80 proof)
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cup dark molasses
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cup pure maple syrup
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cup
  Brown Simple Syrup
  

1. Combine the whiskey, molasses, maple syrup, and simple syrup in a 1-quart jar.
   
2. Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of brown sugar, about 1 day. Use within 1 year.
   

Bottoms Up!
The definitive liqueur for Scotch and Ginger, and makes a sly addition to a Black Velvet Redux (
page 254
).

Raw turbinado sugar is the most refined of the unrefined sweeteners. All but a hint of molasses has been removed, and the sugar crystals are uniform and bone-dry. For my taste, turbinado is a bit too tame to be called “raw,” so I added a tad more molasses. The result is extremely rounded and pleasant — raw but refined.

Makes about 1 quart

• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cups turbinado sugar
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 1
  ³
  ⁄
  ₄
  cups dark rum (80 proof)
  
• ¹
  ⁄
  ₄
  cup dark molasses
  

1. 1.
   Mix the turbinado sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let cool.
   
2. 2.
   Combine the rum, molasses, and turbinado syrup in a clean quart jar.
   
3. 3.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet for the flavors to blend, about 1 day. Use within 1 year.
   

Cheers!
Use as you would any dark or golden rum.

The blackness of this liqueur comes from the deep, dark clouds of coffee and cocoa that invade from within. The intense bitterness of these two ingredients requires a worthy sweet adversary like Caramelized Simple Syrup to set your palate on tilt. The players give their all here, and the result is an utterly adult caffeinated candy.

Makes about 1 quart

• 2
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cups vodka (80–100 proof)
  
• 1 cup (4 ounces) dark-roast coffee beans, cracked
  
• 1 cup (4 ounces) cacao nibs
  
• 3 cinnamon sticks, cracked
  
• 1
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  cups
  Caramelized Simple Syrup
  

1. 1.
   Combine the vodka, coffee beans, cacao nibs, cinnamon, and simple syrup in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything.
   
2. 2.
   Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of coffee and chocolate, about 5 days.
   
3. 3.
   Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.
   
4. 4.
   Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.
   

Sláinte!
Try it to sweeten a Chocolate Martini.