[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Howdy everyone – I hope you’re all feeling great on this december day. I got a wonderful email the other day from Shelley at Yummly, letting me know that she’d seen my post on Savoury Sausage Buckwheat Crêpes and was featuring it, among some other delicious crêpe recipes, in a post on the Yummly blog (post here). That means I now get to wear a “Certified Yummly” badge on my site, which you can see to the right, just below. Hooray 🙂 It feels so nice to know that people enjoy reading my posts. I guess it’s the dream of everyone who blogs about food to inspire other people and to make people say “wow, that looks fantastic, I totally want to eat that”. When people make things I’ve written about here, or deem them worthy enough to talk about it’s a very gratifying experience 🙂
I’m really getting into the Christmas spirit here, thanks in no small part to some of the awesome things I’ve been whipping up in my kitchen and I just can’t wait to share them with you! However… mwahaha, before I do that, I thought I’d make a quick post to update you all on my Cherry Brandy which has been sitting in my cupboard for the last 5-and-a-bit months. Well, I’d intended to give it to friends and family as Christmas presents so it was about time I started fixing it up. The original recipe has now been updated and completed (as it just stopped half-way through), and there are some photos for your viewing pleasure down below.
I’d made peach brandy at the same time and I was incredibly pleased with how they both turned out – it’s true that you need very few spices. The clove I’d added was noticeable, but delicious, even though I added only a small amount. What’s more, I canned the fruit and can now give that as little extra gifts to people or enjoy it for myself as a wonderful ice-cream topping, or put it into a pie or other festive recipe. It took me quite some time to find the bottles – for a country which loves their wine as much as France it seemed really difficult to bulk-buy little bottles for spirits, or indeed empty bottles of any kind. In the end I found a site which sold 24 of these bottles pictured. The cost was about €22 and each one came with a little cork stopper, so perfect for my needs.
The final yield was about 14 bottles – the bottles had a volume of 20cl I think – so I now have 14 (well, 12… I’ll keep at least 2 for myself 😉 ) wonderful little home-made gifts to dish out to people this year, and best of all… I can say “Ha, this took me 6 months to make!”
Join me on the 10th for the start of my Christmas Recipes – many of them are pretty English inspired this year, thanks to Sissi from WithAGlass.com. She requested English recipes, and I was going to just do maybe a small cake, but then I got a bit carried away (the smell of plump raisins warming in the oven was too enticing), so there’ll be at least 3 English recipes, as well as some awesome Swedish stuff, so you can see how it’s done “Scandinavian style”.
Have a great couple of days, and if you happened to make some brandy too, enjoy it! If you didn’t, make sure you remember to do it next year because it’s awesome! 🙂
This is awesome! I want to make some brandy! What a great holiday gift idea 🙂
Thanks Jen – I'm not gonna stop here – I think I'm going to try some flavoured vodka in the new year too!
Charles, I am so happy your alcohol experiments are successful! I must say the best one I have had until now is the black currant one. It's breathtaking and all my friends are speechless when tasting it. (Even those who almost don't drink alcohol).
I am thrilled to learn you prepare English recipes! The 3 English dishes sound like my first Christmas presents 🙂 I am also very interested in Swedish cuisine, so I won't leave your blog for the whole month. I can't wait to see your next post! Thank you very much! And thank you for linking to my blog 🙂
Thanks Sissi – I'm really happy I tried it, thanks so much for inspiring me. The blackcurrant one sounds just incredible… I'd love to try it, both drinking it and making it, but finding blackcurrants here is just… impossible. I posted my first Christmas recipe earlier today… something went wrong and it said it had a posting date of November 24th, but I've fixed that now so it will show up in the right place… I hope you like it!
These are both such lovely gifts that I wish I was on your list of fortunate recipients. I enjoy sweet liqueurs like this in small quantities and living close to Hiram Walkers' factory have had lots of exposure to their Cherry Brandy as well as McGuiness's Cherry Whiskey. It's a nice change from the sickly sweet neon orange pear(?) liqueur from Hungary that my mother used to serve her lady friends from the globe shaped bottle. 🙂
"Sickly sweet neon orange pear" – sounds very intriguing. Does it have a specific name / brand? I'd love to try it actually 😀 I'm with you – I don't drink too much, but drinking sometimes some red wine, or a liqueur is really enjoyable. I also have a soft spot for Rémy Martin XO Cognac, but since it's about €150 a bottle that's not a pleasure I can enjoy that often 😀
The LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario – govt owned chain) used to carry the balloon shaped bottles but I don't think I've seen them on the shelves in ages. I can't recall the name either and my google search for a familiar image has been unsuccessful. I'll look the next time I'm in the liquor store.
Thanks so much! I'd be really interested. I'll keep an eye out for the pear liquor you linked in your second comment as well… Zwak! I never heard of it before, though I'm curious to the taste 😀
PS: This Hungarian brand is similar though I don't think this was it.
http://www.liquormart.com/catalog/product/view/id…
My nephew and I found the Pear liquor I mentioned at the LCBO on Saturday. Same producer but a lot cheaper than the other one, maybe because the flavour is imitation.
Monimpex Golden Pear
750 ml
Price: $ 22.10
Zwack Golden Pear 60° Hungary
750 ml
Price: $ 37.99
Ah, thanks – what's "LCBO" by the way? I'll have to see if there's a way I can get this (directly or delivered) in France – I'm really curious as to the taste!
Oh I can't wait to see the Christmas recipes! I love those bottles. We had to order ours online when we gave limoncello as gifts a few years back. We couldn't find them at local stores.
Thanks Greg – I'm pretty pleased with the bottles – much more unique that the boring ones I had planned to order from Amazon, but in the end they didn't deliver to France 🙂
I just love the idea of giving the brandy as gifts. My Mom and Dad used to make coffee liqueur and give it as gifts. The bottles are lovely indeed. Now I wish I was your neighbour;-)
Thanks so much Eva 🙂 How your parents make coffee liqueur? Maybe I should try this next time!
You ROCK! Congrats on Yummly! 🙂 How exciting!
xo,
Melissa
Thanks Melissa 🙂 Hope you're having a good weekend so far!
Oh I wish I was your next door neighbor or nearby friend…those little bottles of brandy look fantabulous! Maybe I should make some next year. Might be something fun to try! And I can't wait for your Christmas recipes. 🙂
Thanks Kristy – you should definitely make some next year. I really think they make wonderful gifts for people you care about, but aren't close enough to be family or whatever 🙂 Even if you don't gift it, it's still awesome, so win both ways 🙂
Now you've inspired me to make some kind of fruit brandy. I said 'some kind', as cherries are imported and very expensive here. Seems such a waste to not just pop them straight into my mouth instead of waiting 6 months 😀 I'm wondering if any of our local fruits would work? Have to think long and hard about it tho, wouldn't want to waste a good bottle of brandy.
Hi Ping – what sort of fruits do you get local to you? If you check out Sissi from WithAGlass.com, she's got a number of gin and vodka recipes which might work better for your fruit too!
We have rambutans, jackfruit, durians (ew), nutmeg, mangosteens … these are just off the top of my head. Some have local names to them .. langsat, duku … in case you're interested. Mum used to make homemade wines with whatever she could lay her hands on but I was too little to care back then. Will definitely check out Sissi's stuff when I decide to get brave enough to try.
Yeah – durians might not be a good idea (lol), but I think you could probably do delicious things with mangosteens. I'd love to know if you give it a try – I hope you make a post if and when you do!
You've outdone yourself with this Cherry Brandy! I'm sorry I missed the original post back in July, because I probably would have gotten a batch started back then. These are the kind of gifts I love receiving, thus the kind I love to give! Beautiful little bottles! I agree – it's always such a compliment when someone makes your recipe and let's you know!
Thanks MJ! I really had a lot of fun with this recipe, and as you have maybe seen on Sissi's site I'm going to try to do other liquors in the new year. Maybe some sort of gin or vodka. Hope you're able to give it a go yourself – it's so much fun 🙂
You know I'm not a drinker.. but I showed this to my good friend and she loved it. I can see this recipe being made by my girlfriends 🙂
Thanks Kay – I hope they enjoy it 🙂
Hi Charles, congratulations on being certified Yummly! A great feeling indeed.
Sounds like you really got a lot of mileage out of this recipe – two varieties of brandy and canned fruit. I would be thrilled to receive one of your cherry or peach brandies and those bottles are perfect – so pretty and well suited (don't you just love when you find the right packaging material? I do). Makes a lovely gift.
Happy to hear you got carried away with the holiday baking…! Looking forward to tomorrow 🙂
Thanks Kelly! The canned peaches….. oh my God… they're sinfully good. It's exceptionally hard to try and remember that each piece of mushy, boozey awesomeness has actually sucked up a load of neat brandy, so if you're not careful you could probably get hammered after the equivalent of two peaches! Dangerously delicious 😉
Congratulations on Yummly! That is terrific and well deserved. Your cherry brandy is such a lovely gift that I'm sure will really be enjoyed throughout the winter season.
Thanks Karen – once the Christmas stress is over I'll be able to sit down with a glass of this and reminisce 🙂
Too bad they dont allow sending liquids to another country ((
Do they not? I'm sure it would get through… maybe if I froze it and packaged it in dry-ice, then it's no longer technically a liquid 😉 If you come in Spring they'll probably be a bottle left over for you 😉
I am always amazed by the things you make from scratch, Charles…! I can drink alcohol, but mostly wine and I mostly use alcohol to cook. My husband likes to 'warn' me not to use his expensive brandy or cognac for cooking ;). Looking forward to your English recipes, I don't know much about English cuisine, so your future posts will be very interesting for me :).
Haha, using a fine brandy for cooking! 😀 I can just imagine if I had a fine bottle Latour which someone "popped open to add to a pasta sauce"… omg!!! 😀 Thanks for your compliments CG – The first English recipe is up now – I hope you enjoy it 🙂
What beautiful bottles! That looks like quite an undertaking, but well worth the effort I'm sure. Suddenly I'm very thirsty!
Thanks Barb – I felt very lucky to be able to find these bottles… way better than ones I was going to buy 🙂 Prepping the fruit for the alcohol was a lot of fun. My wife and I spent some hours on the balcony on a warm summer evening… really nice 🙂
Sissi has been very influential! I don't (can't?) drink much alcohol but my husband would probably enjoy this! This can be a great gift too, for someone who's lazy to make it from scratch. Me? 🙂 Congrats on Yummly!
Thanks Nami – indeed. The result was so good that I might never buy "De Kuyper" brand of cherry brandy again – since I have my own already, for much cheaper!
I love those bottles you found! What a great gift idea! I did cranberry vodka last year and so wish I had planned ahead for this year. I'll be noting your recipe tho for an early start. I find that pretty much everyone loves to receive a homemade alcoholic gift!
Thanks Linda – indeed it's best to give it a try when the fruits are in season. I hope you have success next year. I've had positive feedback about my brandy so far, so I definitely think I'll be making it again next time!
"what’s “LCBO” by the way? I’ll have to see if there’s a way I can get this (directly or delivered) in France"
Sorry, I thought I had mentioned it before … The LCBO is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It's a province owned chain of liquor stores. They also sell imported beers as well as every liquor you could think of and have a seasonal free magazine of recipe ideas, some featuring the liquor they sell to include in the recipe or to serve along with it. I missed picking one up on Saturday when I blew ~$70 in there. 🙂
Is it like in Sweden where they can sell light beer (<3.5% I think) in supermarkets, but anything above that and the only place to buy stronger alcohol is from the "Systembolaget" – a government owned, nationwide chain of stores which have a monopoly on all alcohol. It's a very strange system.
Supermarkets are not able to sell any alcoholic beverages in Ontario. As wikipedia says:
LCBO stores are generally the only stores allowed to sell distilled spirits in Ontario. Currently, the LCBO is one of the world's largest single purchasers of beverage alcohol products.[1] Beer is also sold by the Brewers Retail Inc., which operates using the name The Beer Store, and is owned by Molson Coors, Anheuser–Busch InBev and Sapporo Brewery. Wine can also be found in a number of stores operated by wineries and licensed to sell their own brands. However, the LCBO is by far the largest wine retailer in the province.