The Craftiest Workshop

I had picked so many Saskatoons and wild raspberries that I needed to come up with more creative ideas for what to do with them.

I don’t drink alcohol very often but I do like fruit flavoured wines and specialty drinks. I decided that I should try to make some fruit infused alcohol.

My original plan was to buy a big bottle of vodka from Costco but it was the same time that people were posting about an odd flavour from the Vodka they were buying there. It was a good choice as I read an article later on that there was a bad batch. I ended up just buying a 750ml bottle and use some leftover Jacob’s Creek moscato wine in the raspberry mixture.

The first jar I filled with 2 1/4 cups of raspberries. I added 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup moscato wine 3/4 cup vodka and the zest of 1/2 a lemon. My idea was that this is the liqueur that I would keep for ourselves.

For the second jar I added 2 cups of Saskatoons, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup of vodka and the zest of 1/2 a lemon.

For the last jar I put 1 1/2 cups of Haskaps, 3/4 cups of sugar syrup and 1/2 cup vodka. Not sure if the 1/2 cup of alcohol will be enough but no more would fit in the jar. Sugar syrup is just equal parts sugar and water, boiled till sugar is dissolved then cooled.

I just hand tightened the jars for the liqueur with a plastic lid/metal lid; no need to seal. The jars will sit in the pantry where it is dark and fairly cool for 3 months. I placed an old tea towel over them to keep out more light. Every day I go in there I give the jars a few shakes. This is supposed to help with the alcohol infusion. This is what they look like today.

Sometime in early November I will strain each jar through some cheesecloth and put the liqueur into some decorative bottles and mini jars. We found a nice assortment at Dollarama. Some will be given away as gifts and some we will keep for ourselves.

If these combinations work out, I want to try a similar thing using caramels and maybe some white rum. The recipe I saw just had 15 caramels per 250ml jar then fill with vodka leaving 1/2 inch headspace. It needs to only sit for a week, strain out the leftover candy bits and then store in the fridge. Other recipes I saw said you could use white rum instead of vodka. I think a nice caramel rum based liqueur would be nice for Christmas.

It is nice to have the extra berries to try different things with. We had a pie, made by my sister in-law, with an equal mix of saskatoons , haskaps and wild raspberries. That combination was delicious. Next year I will have to try making a triple berry liqueur.