Cranberry Gin

Home-made Cranberry Gin

Zingy and zesty home-made Cranberry Gin is one of my favourite seasonal drinks. This delicious Cranberry liqueur has the wonderful sweet-sour taste of fresh cranberries and is perfect at a Christmas or New Year party or after a seasonal family celebration. I make it for my family to drink over the holiday season but also make a few extra bottles as they are brilliant Christmas gifts.

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What you need to know about making Cranberry Gin

  • Although it is incredibly easy to make, you do need to think ahead. You cannot just rustle up a batch of Cranberry Gin to drink tomorrow as it needs around a month for the infusion of flavour to happen.
  • You can make it with fresh cranberries, when they are in season in the winter months, but you can also use frozen cranberries if you want to make it at another time of year.
  • It is important to prick the cranberries with a skewer or sharp knife as this helps to release the flavour into the gin.
  • I use a basic, “own-brand” gin from the supermarket to make this recipe. It is not worth using anything fancy. You can also use vodka as an alternative.

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Cranberry Gin flavour variations

I have suggested adding a sprig of rosemary to the cranberries in this recipe. I think rosemary combines well with their sweet-sharp flavour. It is also one of the few fresh herbs that I can harvest from my garden in the winter months.

Sometimes, I make my Cranberry Gin without any additional flavourings. If I do decide to add another flavouring, I tend to just add one as I like the clear, clean taste of the cranberries.

The following flavourings go well with cranberries, so please feel free to experiment.

  • Orange or other citrus fruit such as clementines, mandarins or tangerines – add a few large pieces of the zest to the jar with the cranberries
  • Cinnamon – add a cinnamon stick
  • Ginger – add some pieces of fresh ginger

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

Other home-made gin liqueur recipes

If you enjoy this Cranberry Gin, you may also be interested in my other easy recipes for Rhubarb GinPlum GinDamson Gin, Blackberry Gin and Elderflower Gin.

Other Cranberry recipes

I am a big fan of cranberries. They freeze very well so I use them throughout the year. However, as they are in season in winter, I make a lot of cranberry recipes around Christmas and New Year.

  • Cranberry Sauce – a classic and so much nicer when you make it yourself. I add cinnamon, white wine and orange and it is always on my table for Christmas dinner!
  • Cranberry Ice Cream – slightly more unusual but this is one of my go-to ways of using up any left over Cranberry Sauce. My other is Cranberry Pavlova which often appears as a dessert for family meals between Christmas and New Year.

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Home-made Cranberry Gin liqueur recipe

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Cranberry Gin

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 400 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This easy Cranberry Gin liqueur has the zingy sweet-sour taste of fresh cranberries. Make it for your family or give as a seasonal gift.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 200 g (7 oz) cranberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 200 g (7 oz) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
  • 400 ml (17 fl oz) gin
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)

Instructions

  1. If using frozen cranberries, allow to defrost.
  2. Wash the cranberries thoroughly. Prick each of them several times with a sharp knife.   This will allow the juice – and flavour – to transfer to the gin.
  3. Put the cranberries into a sterilised jar.  Add the sugar and then the gin. Make sure the gin covers all the cranberries.

  4. Add the sprigs of rosemary.

  5. Shake thoroughly to ensure it is mixed.

  6. Seal the jar and leave in a cool, dry, dark place for two weeks.

  7. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink.    Strain the gin into sterilised bottles through a clean muslin or cotton cloth held in a funnel and it will keep for approximately six months.


Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

Although it only takes 30 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow four weeks for the flavour to develop.

You can scale this recipe up or down according to how much cranberry gin you want to make.   Simply double, triple or quadruple the quantities of all ingredients to make more and halve to make less.

Blackberry Gin

Home-made Blackberry Gin

This method for home-made Blackberry Gin is incredibly easy and results in a beautiful ruby-coloured, sweet liqueur. It has a delicious, rich, sweet-sour flavour.

I have only recently started making Blackberry Gin. Having had some initial success with Elderflower Gin and Rhubarb Gin (which is great for cocktails!) last year, I started to think about other seasonal fruits that I could use to produce delicious home-made gin! I have always been a keen blackberry picker but, in the past, have used them for jam and also cakes, puddings and desserts such as Blackberry Muffins, Blackberry Crumble and Blackberry Fool. However, it occurred to me that they might taste pretty good as a flavouring for gin.

Late August and early September is blackberry season in the Cotswolds. On my daily dog walks, I see the brambles growing rapidly during early summer. By mid-summer, their flowers are turning to fruit. In late summer, within a week or so, they suddenly seem to be covered in hundreds of juicy blackberries. You can, of course, buy blackberries all year round in supermarkets these days. However, there is nothing like picking your own. Even people who would never forage for any other kind of wild produce have memories of going blackberrying. Where I live, it is a pretty popular thing to do. On my relatively short drive to work last week, I saw no less than three groups of people, equipped with plastic containers and thick gloves, picking the blackberries that grow along the roadside.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of flavoured gins, including Blackberry Gin, produced by niche producers and selling for a premium in supermarkets.  I think home-made and traditional is best in terms of both flavour and price, so why not try making your own? It is really easy!

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What you need to know about making Blackberry Gin

  • First off, it is incredibly easy. Even to describe it as a recipe is a bit of an exaggeration! You simply need to combine the blackberries, sugar and gin and leave for the delicious fruity flavour to infuse the liquid.
  • However, you do need to think ahead. You cannot just rustle up a batch of Blackberry Gin to drink tomorrow as it needs around a month for the infusion of flavour to happen.
  • I think of this as a seasonal recipe and make it in August and September when there are plentiful wild blackberries growing near my house. I make a lot of infused gins around that time of year using season produce such as damsons, plums and also late rhubarb. Their sweet, fruitiness makes them ideal as drinks over the Christmas and New Year period.
  • However, if you want to make this recipe using bought blackberries – either fresh or frozen – it will still work. It will just be a bit more expensive to make as the main flavouring ingredient is not free! Also, I find that shop-bought blackberries tend to be sweeter than wild blackberries so you won’t get such a tangy sweet-sour flavour.
  • I use a basic, “own-brand” gin from the supermarket to make this recipe. It is not worth using anything fancy. You can also use vodka as an alternative.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

How to drink Blackberry Gin

The result of this recipe is a sweet, alcoholic liqueur-style drink. I like it best served on its own in a small glass (or maybe several small glasses!). You can drink it as an aperitif before a meal or, my preference, as a liqueur at the end of a meal. It is also a good to drink as an accompaniment to a dessert course, as alternative to a dessert wine. This is particularly true if the dessert includes blackberries or other complementary flavours such as apple.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

Other home-made fruit gins

If you enjoy this Blackberry Gin, you may also be interested in my other easy recipes for Rhubarb Gin, Plum Gin, Damson Gin and Elderflower Gin.

Blackberry Gin recipe

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Blackberry Gin

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15
  • Yield: 200 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Making your own Blackberry Gin is so easy and the end result is a delicious reminder of blackberry season that you can enjoy all year around!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 200 g (7 oz) blackberries
  • 100 g  (3.5 oz) caster or super-fine sugar
  • 200 ml (quarter of a pint) gin

Instructions

  1. Wash the blackberries thoroughly.
  2. Mix the blackberries thoroughly with the sugar in a large bowl.
  3. Spoon the blackberries and sugar into a sterilised jar.  Leave for 24 hours to allow the blackberries to macerate in the sugar and   release their juices.
  4. Add the gin to the jar of blackberries and sugar.  Shake thoroughly to ensure it is mixed.
  5. Leave in a cool, dry, dark place for four weeks.
  6. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink!    Strain the gin into sterilised bottles through a muslin cloth held in a funnel and it will keep for approximately six months.

Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.       

Although it only takes 15 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow 24 hours for the blackberries to macerate  in the sugar and, once you have added the gin, it will take a further four weeks to allow the flavour to develop. 

You can scale this recipe up or down according to how many blackberries you feel like picking.  Add half as much weight in sugar as your weight of blackberries.  The amount of gin in ml should be equivalent to the weight in grams of your blackberries. 

Elderflower Cordial

Picked elderflowers

Home-made Elderflower Cordial recipe

Although there are a number of brands of ready-made Elderflower Cordial available now, it is is really easy to make your own.    I think home-made Elderflower Cordial is best as it has a zesty lemony taste which ready-made versions don’t seem to have.  Also, it is cheaper as the main ingredient is free!

elderflowers

How to find your elderflowers

Elderflowers are a good starting point for new “foragers” as they are so widely available and easily recognisable.   They are the blossoms of the elder (Sambucus nigra) which is a small tree or shrub commonly found in woodlands and gardens throughout the UK.   

The time to make this cordial is in late spring or early summer when the elderflowers are in bloom. When you start to look for them, you will see them everywhere in hedges in May and June. The elderflower heads consist of hundreds of small creamy-white flowers and have a distinctive elderflower aroma.

Elderflowers are best picked on a sunny day as the flavour will be stronger. Choose elderflower heads where the flowers are fully open but which have not yet started to turn brown. As with all foraged food, you need to make sure that the flowers that you are gathering have not been treated with any chemicals.

There are two views regarding preparation of elderflowers for use in cordial, gin or vinegar. The first is that you should not wash the elderflowers as this will impact the flavour and you should just shake the flowers and pick through them to remove any insects. The second is that the blooms need to be washed to remove the bugs, and any dirt, regardless of any reduction in flavour. I tend towards the “no-wash” view as I think the flavour is better but the choice is yours!

elderflower cordial
Some ideas for novice foragers

I am a fairly recent convert to the joys of foraging and tend to stick to things that are pretty easily identifiable such as elderflowers. My first foray into foraging involved blackberries (everyone knows what blackberries look like!) and resulted in Blackberry Ice Cream, Blackberry Gin and some yummy Blackberry Muffins. Some of my other favourite foraged recipes include Nettle Soup and a tart which combines onions with Wild Garlic. All made with ingredients which are pretty easy to identify. Definitely steering clear of foraged mushrooms for the time being!

Easy home-made Elderflower Cordial recipe

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elderflower cordial

Elderflower Cordial

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 1.5 litres 1x
  • Category: Cordial
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This luscious home-made elderflower cordial is so easy to make and can be used in soft drinks, as a cooking ingredient or to bring a floral note to cocktails.


Ingredients

Scale
  • About 20 elderflower heads
  • 3 unwaxed lemons
  • 1 kg sugar

Instructions

  1. Either shake the eldereflowers and pick through them to remove any insects or wash the elderflower heads to remove any insects.
  2. Then place them in a large bowl together with the grated zest of the lemons.   (Reserve the lemons as you will need to use their juice later.)
  3. Pour 1.5 litres of boiling water over the elderflowers and lemon zest.   Cover and leave to infuse overnight.
  4. The next day, strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin or kitchen paper, into a large saucepan.
  5. Add the sugar and the juice of the lemons to the infused liquid and heat gently to dissolve the sugar.   Once the sugar is dissolved, simmer more rapidly for around 5  minutes until the liquid has thickened slightly.
  6. Transfer the cordial into sterilised bottles or jars. (There are various ways of sterilising bottles and jars.  I think the easiest is to wash in soapy water and then put in an oven at 120 C for 15 minutes).
  7. Once bottled, the cordial will keep for several weeks in the fridge.

Notes

Although the preparation time is only 15 minutes, you do need to leave the mixture to infuse overnight (see step 3).

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elderflower cordial
Other Elderflower Recipes

I am a big fan of elderflower and love its distinctive floral flavour. I have lots of recipes, some using fresh elderflowers and some which can be made with shop-bought elderflower cordial.

elderflower cordial

Damson Gin

Home-made Damson Gin

Home-made Damson Gin liqueur is probably my favourite of all the flavoured gins that I make. The sharp sweet-sour fruit produces a liqueur with a brilliant punch of flavour. It is also a beautiful ruby red colour. If you make it in September when damsons are in season, you can enjoy drinking it at Christmas and New Year!

Why make your own flavoured gin?

It is extremely easy to make your own flavoured gin. You just add the fruit or other flavourings to the alcohol, add some sugar and leave it for a few months to transform into a delicious liqueur. Making your own also allows you to experiment with flavours and you know exactly what went into it.

There are lots of flavoured gin liqueurs available in the shops now. Many of them are delicious but they are often sold at premium prices. I find making my own very satisfying as you get a premium product at a low price. It is also a great way of using an over-supply of seasonal produce. Flavoured gins also keep for a very long time so if you make a batch in late summer or autumn, you can be sipping it all through the winter.

In praise of damsons

Damsons are small, dark purple fruit which have a strong sour flavour. Their sourness prevents them being eaten raw. However, they are excellent in a range of cooked dishes such as jams and preserves or fruit pies when their sourness is balanced by sugar.

This autumn I have been exploring the wonderful world of home-made gin.  Inspired by the Rhubarb Gin and Elderflower Gin  that I made in the spring, I started to think about which autumn fruits might also make a good flavoured gin. 

Having made an excellent Blackberry Gin and Plum Gin in August, I started  to wonder if there are any other seasonal fruit that I could use to make flavoured gin. In my local greengrocer, I spotted some damsons – small, dark purple sour plums which cannot be eaten raw but need to be cooked (with sugar) to bring out their flavour.  I hadn’t seen them for years but they immediately brought back memories as my mother had a prolific damson tree in her garden.  It occurred to me that they would make a good gin flavouring.

If you can’t find damsons, and they can be hard to source, you can make a great Plum Gin instead. However, if you do see them in a shop or market when they are in season in September, they are worth buying as they are great in jams and fruit pies as well as gin.

What you need to know about making Damson Gin

  • You can use any kind of gin in this recipe. I generally use a mid-range supermarket brand. You don’t want to use a really top-class gin – better just to drink that with some tonic – but on the other hand you don’t want to use something that tastes like lighter fluid! If you don’t have any gin available, you can substitute vodka. You just need an alcohol base that will absorb all the delicious fruity flavour of the damsons.
  • You need to allow four weeks for the flavour of the damsons to transfer into the liquid. However, you can leave them in for up to two months. The longer the damsons remain in the alcohol, the more intense the final flavour. Once the fruit is removed, the gin will last for at least a year.
  • I prefer to drink this gin liqueur on its own with no mixers. However, you can use it as an ingredient in cocktails. I have some recipes for Rhubarb Gin Cocktails where damson gin could be substituted for the rhubarb gin.

Other home-made gin

I love making fruit-flavoured gin and have lots of gin recipes. It is the perfect way to use seasonal fruit and flowers, at a time when there is often an over-supply, and preserve the wonderful flavour to enjoy later in the year. Some of my favourites are Blackberry GinRhubarb GinElderflower Gin and Plum Gin.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index or have a look at some of my other drink recipes.

Home-made Damson Gin liqueur recipe

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Damson Gin

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 500 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This home-made Damson Gin liqueur is so easy to make and tastes delicious.   Its ruby red colour and sweet-sour flavour makes it the perfect winter drink!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 500 g  (1 lb) fresh damsons
  • 250 g (8 oz) caster sugar
  • 500 ml (1 pint) gin

Instructions

  1. Wash the damsons.  Prick them with a fork and then cut them in half without removing the stones.
  2. Place the damsons in a sterilised jar.   
  3. Add the sugar and gin and shake to mix together.    The gin  must cover the top of the damsons.
  4. Put the lid on the jar. 
  5. Keep it in a cool, dark place for four weeks. 
  6. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink!    Strain the gin into a sterilised bottle through a muslin cloth held in a funnel and discard the fruit.

Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.       

Although it only takes 15 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow four weeks to allow the flavour to develop before you drink the gin

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Apply to Face Blog and #FiestaFriday with Fiesta Friday and  Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Plum Gin

Home-made Plum Gin recipe

This home-made Plum Gin involves combining fresh plums, sugar and gin and allowing time for the essence of the fruit to transfer into the alcohol. The end result is a plum-flavoured liqueur which has a concentrated, sweet plum taste. It is fantastic either on its own or as an ingredient in cocktails.

Where I live in the Cotswolds, plums are in season in August and early September. This is the perfect time to make Plum Gin to drink at Christmas. If you make this recipe, you should imagine sipping a glass of dark red, fruity and delicious drink on a cold winter’s night!

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Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

What you need to know about making Plum Gin

  • You can use any kind of gin in this recipe. I generally use a mid-range supermarket brand. You don’t want to use a really top-class gin – better just to drink that with some tonic – but on the other hand you don’t want to use something that tastes like lighter fluid! If you don’t have any gin available, you can substitute vodka. You just need an alcohol base that will absorb all the delicious fruity flavour of the plums.
  • You can make this recipe with any kind of plum. I use Victoria Plums, as I have a tree in my garden, but there are lots of other varieties available and they all make a good flavouring for gin.
  • You need to allow at least three weeks for the flavour of the plums to transfer into the liquid. However, you can leave them in for up to two months. The longer the plums remain in the alcohol, the more intense the final flavour. Once the fruit is removed, the gin will last for at least a year.

Recipe variations

You can add additional flavourings to this Plum Gin.

  • Star anise – put a couple of star anise pods in with the plums
  • Vanilla – similarly, just add a vanilla pod to the jar
  • Ginger – add a few slices of fresh ginger
  • Cinnamon – add a cinnamon stick
  • Cardamon – add three or four cardamon pods

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Other home-made gin

I love making fruit-flavoured gin. It is the perfect way to use seasonal fruit and flowers, at a time when there is often an over-supply, and preserve the wonderful flavour to enjoy later in the year. Some of my favourites are Blackberry Gin, Rhubarb Gin, Elderflower Gin and Damson Gin.

Home-made Plum Gin recipe

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Plum Gin

Plum Gin

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 6 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Total Time: 10
  • Yield: 500 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This home-made Plum Gin involves combining fresh plums, sugar and gin and allowing time for the essence of the fruit to transfer into the alcohol.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 500 g (1 lb) fresh plums
  • 100 g (4 oz) caster sugar
  • 500 ml (1 pint) gin


Instructions

  1. Wash the plums.  Prick them with a fork and then cut them in half without removing the stones.
  2. Place the plums in a sterilised jar.   
  3. Add the sugar and gin and shake to mix together.    The gin  must cover the top of the plums.
  4. Put the lid on the jar.
  5. Keep it in a cool, dark place for four weeks. 
  6. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink!    Strain the gin into a sterilised bottle through a muslin cloth held in a funnel and discard the fruit.

Plum Gin


Notes

You can sterilise your jam jars by washing them in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

Although it only takes 20 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow 24 hours for the rhubarb to macerate  in the sugar and, once you have added the gin, it will take a further four weeks to allow the flavour to develop.

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Recipes Made Easy and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday and  Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons