This weekend I had a crafty day with one of my dear friends. Over the last few weeks we’ve been saying how much we’d like to try making handmade gifts for our loved ones, and coming up with different ideas. So over the next few weeks I’ll be posting the things we actually get round to making.
We both love Domestic Sluttery, we each have a copy of their book, follow them on twitter, pinterest and regularly read the blog. So when they posted ideas for Boozy Christmas gifts we had to give them a try! I decided to make the Blackberry Rum, but using whisky, and my friend wanted to make the Limoncello, but it wasn’t to be as she couldn’t get hold of a bottle of vodka with more the 45% vol. If anyone can suggest where she might find such strong vodka we’d be very grateful!
I started out by sterilizing my kilner jar that I’d bought from Lakeland. It really is very easy. I first washed the jar and the lid in warm soapy water then set them on a clean tea towel to dry. I then pre-heated the oven to 180 degrees then placed the jar on a metal tray in the oven for 10 minutes. While the jar was in the oven I popped the lid in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes. I then placed both on a clean tea towel again to dry out and cool down.
Mean while I got my ingredients ready:
1 vanilla pod
350g blackberries
100g caster sugar
70cl light whisky
Next I split the vanilla pod and popped it into the jar, then added the blackberries and sugar, and finally poured the whisky in until the blackberries were completely covered and the jar was full. I put the lid on then gave it all a gentle shake.
Now I just need to wait 3 weeks, keeping the jar in a cool dry place and mixing it every so often. Once it has all infused I’ll then need to put the liquid through a coffee filter and put my Blackberry Whisky into presentation bottles ready for gifting.
So fingers crossed it tastes as good as I’m hoping it will! I will post the verdict and the bottling process in 3 weeks!
If you’re planning on make any other boozy Christmas treats like a Christmas cake or Christmas pudding make sure you get started soon to give enough time for the flavours to really develop.
Sweet Vida 