How To Make Blackberry Vodka Recipe
Written by Phil Brown, Badger Bushcraft Blog Sunday, 25 September 2011 08:06
As our regular readers will know there has been a bit of a boozy theme running through the Badger Bushcraft Blog over the last weeks with recipes that use brandy and whisky, in the this Wild Food blog article we will look at the easiest of fruit flavoured spirit recipes that being blackberry vodka liqueur.
Picking blackberries brings back some treasured and evocative memories of my childhood spending hours trying to fill an old ice cream tub and exploring the fields and footpaths near my parent's home in Weald near Sevenoaks in Kent. Once the tub was full I would return home and my mother would make apple and blackberry pie that we would eat with double cream whilst sitting out in the garden.
Locally to based between Maidstone and Ashford the blackberries are both in season and also in vogue with most of the well known "berrying patches" stripped bare both by the village inhabitants and the foxes and wild birds. Finding a crop big enough to fill a modest Pyrex bowl was somewhat of a mission this weekend and our favourite spot was stripped all but for a few blackberries that were hard to reach.
Fortunately there are plenty of unripe fruits that will mature in the coming days with the predicted fine weather, let's hope the weather forecast for our area of Kent is correct! With this in mind gathering a few more as needed will be a simple task when out walking Inca in the early and somewhat misty mornings.
Blackberry vodka liqueur recipe is the quickest and simplest wild fruit spirits to make all you will need are:-
- Vodka
- Blackberries
- Sugar
My recipe is exceptionally simple and based around a 70cl bottle of vodka. First off remove one third of the vodka and store for later use.
Now add to the bottle 100g of caster sugar, I have found that caster sugar dissolves far quicker than granulated sugar, but use what you have to hand.
Now fill the bottle with the washed and dried fresh hedgerow blackberries. As you can see from the picture I need a few handfuls more to fill the bottle. The beauty of using blackberries is that the majority will fit into the neck of a normal spirits bottle and need no other preparation other than washing and drying.
Once all the ingredients are in the bottle replace the cap tightly, give it a good shake and place it in the cool dark cupboard occasionally shaking to agitate the fruit and any sugar that has not dissolved. After several weeks give it a little taste and add more sugar to sweeten and add viscosity if required.
Once you are pleased with the flavour and sweetness of your blackberry vodka, I tend to leave mine for 10 or so weeks which ties in perfectly with the festive season, strain through muslin or jelly bag and decant the filtered brew back into a clean bottle. The remaining boozy berries make an excellent topping to vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
Other fruit based spirit recipes are featured on our Badger Bushcraft Blog and can be found here:-
How To Make Blackberry Brandy Christmas Liqueur Recipe
Comments
Have you ever tried using gooseberries in this way? My Mum always gives me lots and I don't always have time to bake with them.
Many thanks.
I have just come across your site looking for blackberry vodka receipe. I've just moved to the New Forest in Hampshire with my wife and have spend today picking blackberries, apples from our orchard and feeding the roaming semi-wild picks of the forest. Getting used to coming into close contact with badgers, deer and the plentiful fungi. Foragers paradise in British woodlands. Love the site and will keep an eye out for anything interesting.
Frozen black berries will be fine!
Have you seen our amazing "How To Make Blackberry Brandy Christmas Liqueur Recipe" http://www.badgerbushcraft.com/wild-food/how-to-make-blackberry-brandy-christmas-liqueur-recipe.htm
Best regards,
Phil and Co.
I love this recipe its so simple. I've given it a go & fingers crossed it will turn out ok. I've also blogged about it and linked your blog in http://clingingtoarock.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/alcoholic-berries/
Jo
You could leave it out or add a little and then add more to taste. I'm not a big fan of too much sugar but a little sweetness makes this a lot nicer.
Best regards,
Phil
Is the sugar essential or could younleave it out?
Best,
Geraint.
It really is worth the wait as the flavours develop wonderfully!
"Good thing comes to those that wait".
Do let us know how you get on!
Best regards,
Phil & Co.
This year the trees and bushes are laden with fruit, I can’t recall a better year for harvesting fruit from the wild!
The best of the blackberries were available about two weeks ago and we have also harvested or will be harvesting very shortly common whitebeam (Sorbus aria), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), dog rose (Rosa canina), hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), sloe (Prunus spinosa), plums (Prunus domestica ssp. Domestica), bullace (Prunus domestica ssp. Insititia) and I have even found a patch of wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) that I hope to gather before avian and mammalian friends get there!
Enjoy the gifts of Mother Nature during autumn (fall) in Connecticut.
Best regards,
Phil.
Karen
the3foragers.blogspot.com