INFUSING LIQUORS WITH FLAVOR

Make Your Own

You can make many of your own extracts, flavored sugars, and fruit cordials or liqueurs at home without too much effort by infusing fruit peels and spices in vodka, rum, or other liquors.

It's a fun and easy project during the Winter months. The bottled infusions make cheerful and welcoming holiday gifts when decanted in fancy bottles and adorned with colorful ribbons, raffia-tied spices, cinnamon sticks, and pine cones.

Vanilla Bean Liquor

Add 3-4 vanilla beans to a ½ pint canning jar filled with ½ vodka and ½ Myer's rum (or just plain vodka will do). There are also vanilla-flavored vodkas now, but that defeats the purpose.

When the vodka has sufficiently infused in a few weeks, you can remove the vanilla beans and store them in a sugar-filled jar for several months. The sugar will take on the vanilla flavor, and you can use this sugar to make apple pie, cookies, sprinkle on desserts, whipped cream, etc. Otherwise, leave the beans in the vodka; they will eventually dissolve. Shake up the jar to disperse before using.

Try infusing Strega (Galliano) with vanilla beans; use this instead of vanilla extract when making biscotti or pound cake.

Mint

To make mint extract, obtain a pound of fresh spearmint or peppermint leaves (harvest them at noon on a sunny day), wash them well, and discard the stems, keeping the leaves. Add the crushed/bruised leaves to a pretty vodka bottle or canning jar and place in the sun. I am using a piece of well-washed, new cheesecloth—strain (and discard) the leaves from the infusion after three to four weeks.

Lemon

For orange or lemon extract, you need to use a zesting tool or a vegetable peeler to strip off the citrus peels while leaving the bitter white "pith" behind.

Squeeze the fruit, removing the membranes and seeds. Place the peels and fruit pulp into a quart-sized canning jar, filling ⅓ of the jar. Add vodka (there are citrus-flavored vodkas that might be interesting, or else try limoncello!).

Star Anise

Fill a ½ pint canning jar with whole star anise for anise extract. Fill with vodka, leave indefinitely. Star anise is also stored well in sugar to make anise-flavored sugar. (An interesting side note: Star anise are the star-shaped seed pods from the fruit of a Chinese evergreen tree, which provides a key ingredient used in the production of Tamiflu, an antiviral agent purportedly effective in helping to fight H5N1 bird flu and other influenza).

Pomegranate

Pomegranates make an interesting, cordial, and excellent substitute for red food coloring. Just look at that color! No wonder pomegranates are loaded with antioxidants. Remove the skin and membranes from 3-4 pomegranates and separate the seeds in the bottom of a quart-sized canning jar. Crush the seeds with the back of the spoon. Fill the rest of the jar with vodka. Let's sit for about a week. Store in a sealed decanter in a cool, dark place.

Drunken Fruits

I make Drunken Fruits for cocktail garnishes and sharing at parties. They look amazing on desserts, are delightfully boozy, and contain more alcohol than infused liquor.

Check Progress

In all infusions, check the progress periodically (by tasting, of course!). If the infusion lacks flavor, leave it to steep for a longer period or start again by straining the liquid and adding a new batch of the flavoring ingredient (to the same vodka that has already been infused).

In this way, you can also add multiple layers of flavor or create new combinations by using a second flavoring ingredient the next time around.

At home with Rebecka: INFUSING LIQUORS WITH FLAVOR