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.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

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.

Cranberry Ice Cream

Easy Cranberry Ice Cream made with Fresh Cranberry Sauce

This Cranberry Ice Cream is made with Fresh Cranberry Sauce which gives it the added flavours of white wine, orange and cinnamon. Using Fresh Cranberry Sauce, adds an extra dimension to this ice cream and makes it the perfect seasonal pudding.

So, there are two ways you can go with this Cranberry Ice Cream. First off, if you have made some Fresh Cranberry Sauce to eat with your Christmas dinner and you have some left over, you can use any that is left over to make this ice cream. If you go down that route – and it is super-easy to make your own cranberry sauce – then making this ice cream is a doddle.

However, if you do not happen to have any surplus Fresh Cranberry Sauce to hand – and maybe you don’t really fancy it with your Christmas dinner (or maybe its not even Christmas) – you can make a batch to use as an ingredient in puddings. I have two excellent cranberry-based puddings on this blog each of which conveniently uses half a batch of my sauce recipe. One is this Cranberry Ice Cream and the other is my Cranberry Pavlova. Both are great at Christmas or New Year, when there are a lot of fresh cranberries about, and I think they are a brilliant alternative to heavy Christmas pudding! They are both sweet and creamy with the fruity tang of cranberries.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

Easy Cranberry Ice Cream recipe

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Cranberry Ice Cream

Cranberry Ice Cream

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Ice Cream
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This Cranberry Ice Cream is made with Fresh Cranberry Sauce, which not only includes cranberries but is also flavoured with white wine, orange and cinnamon, adds an extra dimension and makes it the perfect seasonal pudding.


Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until the mixture looks paler and resembles a mousse.
  2. Put the cream in a saucepan and heat gently. Do not allow to boil – it will be the right temperature when you are just about able to bear to dip a finger in it!
  3. Pour the cream into the bowl containing the egg yolks and sugar, whisking all the time.
  4. Transfer the combined mixture into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or, ideally a double-boiler, as you need to reheat it very gently.
  5. The mixture will gradually thicken until it looks like a custard (which is what it is).  Stir regularly to make sure it does not stick while it is thickening.
  6. Remove the thick custard from the heat and transfer into a bowl. 
  7. If you are using my home-made Fresh Cranberry Sauce, you will need to use a food processor or hand-held blender to chop up the whole berries and create a rough paste before adding to the custard.  If you are using smooth, ready-made Cranberry Sauce, you can just stir it into the custard.
  8. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature and then transfer to the fridge to become thoroughly chilled.
  9. When you are ready to make the ice-cream, transfer to your ice-cream maker and use according to your machine’s instructions.  If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.

Cranberry Ice Cream


Notes

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own Fresh Cranberry Sauce – and it honestly is very quick and easy – you can use ready-made Cranberry Sauce although the flavour will not be as good unless you can find one that includes cinnamon, orange and white wine!

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

Cranberry Pavlova

Cranberry Pavlova – a meringue-based festive dessert

This Cranberry Pavlova is the perfect light and creamy, meringue-based festive dessert. It is made using left-over Fresh Cranberry Sauce which makes it super-easy to put together.

I always have a family lunch on Boxing Day and serve this pavlova as one of the desserts using sauce prepared for Christmas lunch. It is the perfect dessert for those who have eaten too much Christmas Pudding and want something which is still festive but is a bit lighter!

Making Fresh Cranberry Sauce is really quick and easy. If you haven’t got any left over, it is a matter of minutes to make it from scratch. It is a great accompaniment to a festive meal – either a traditional turkey dinner or a vegetarian alternative. Even better, it can be used as an ingredient in a range of desserts. I will often have some left over if I have made it as a meal accompaniment and sometimes in the summer I make a batch just to make desserts! You just have to make sure that the sauce has time to cool down before it is used to top your pavlova.

Fruit with flavour – cranberry, rhubarb and gooseberry

I love fruit which have a good balance of sharp and sweet flavour. Often, as with this recipe, they need to cooked to bring out their zingy flavour. In addition cranberries, I think rhubarb and gooseberries are both under-rated. If you share my love of a good old-fashioned sharp and sweet fruit recipe, you might like my Rhubarb Fool, Rhubarb Roulade or Gooseberry and Elderflower Sorbet.

Lovely pavlovas

One of the great things about pavlova is that while it has that show-stopping, celebratory vibe, they are actually extremely simple to produce even for inexperienced cooks. It is easy to make the meringue a day in advance and then assembling the pavlova takes a matter of minutes. I make loads of them at Christmas and New Year. In addition to my Cranberry Pavlova, some of my other favourites include Strawberry Pavlova,  Rose and Raspberry Pavlova and Lemon Pavlova.

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Cranberry Pavlova

Cranberry Pavlova

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 60
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4 to 6 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This Cranberry Pavlova is made using left-over Fresh Cranberry Sauce.  It is a fantastic, fruity, meringue-based festive pudding!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 egg whites
  • Pinch of salt
  • 225 g caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cornflour
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 300 ml double cream
  • 250 ml Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 140 C/275 F/Gas Mark 1.
  2. Whisk the egg whites with salt until they form stiff peaks.
  3. Add two tablespoons of sugar and continue to whisk until combined and the mixture is thick and glossy.
  4. Fold the rest of the sugar, the cornflour and the lemon juice into the whisked egg whites.
  5. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment or silicon paper.
  6. Spoon the egg white mixture onto the baking sheet to form a large circle or oval.
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour until the exterior of the meringue is hard to the touch.
  8. Allow to cool.
  9. When ready to serve, whisk the double cream until it forms soft peaks and then spread it on top of the meringue base.
  10. Spoon the Fresh Cranberry Sauce over the cream. 

Notes

Making the Fresh Cranberry Sauce is really quick and easy.  You just need to make sure that it is cooled before you assemble your pavlova.

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with EasyPeasyFoodie and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday and Laurena@LifeDietHealth

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Fresh Cranberry Sauce with White Wine and Orange

This is my mother’s recipe for Fresh Cranberry Sauce. She made it once a year on Christmas Eve, ready to be served up on Christmas Day as an accompaniment to the turkey. I have no idea where she originally found the recipe but it was hand-written on a scrap of paper in the tattered recipe file that I inherited from her so I think it is one that she got from somewhere else rather than made up herself.

Why bother making Cranberry Sauce?

There are lots of jars of very good quality Cranberry Sauce which are available all year around and practically fill the sauce shelf in the supermarket in the run-up to Christmas. So why would you bother to make your own? These are the reasons why I make it – hopefully they will encourage you to give it a try!

It smells of Christmas

For me, Christmas smells of this Cranberry Sauce. Whenever I make it, I am transported back to my childhood and to Christmas Eve. There is something about the fruity tang of the cranberries, combined with white wine, orange and cinnamon that captures the Christmas spirit for me. If you make it, take a big old sniff when you are cooking the cranberries and tell me that I am wrong! Even if you do not have any childhood memories associated with it, making this sauce is a pretty good way to get into the Christmas cooking vibe.

It is not just for turkey (or, in fact, for Christmas)

Cranberry Sauce is the traditional accompaniment to Christmas turkey. However, as someone who cooks a Christmas dinner that has to meet a whole range of dietary choices, I know that it goes pretty well with other things too. I serve both turkey and a vegetarian option, usually some kind of pie, and the Cranberry Sauce goes brilliantly with both. Although my mother made this sauce only for Christmas and never at any other time, I make it fairly often during the winter. It is a staple of Sunday lunch and, as you will see below, any left over sauce can be used as the basis of lots of other dishes.

It is really easy to make and can be made in advance

Making this sauce is really easy. It has only a few ingredients and is very quick to make. You can serve it hot but I think it is better if you allow it cool and thicken and let the flavours develop. Therefore, I generally make it a day in advance which is great if you are preparing a big celebration meal as it is one less thing to do on the day.

It is really versatile and can be used as the basis for lots of other recipes

When I make this Cranberry Sauce, I generally leave the cranberries whole in the finished sauce. However, I know that some people find this a bit off-putting as they are used to sauces like this being smooth. If you prefer it that way, you can blend the sauce so that you get jelly with flecks of cranberry which is more like shop-bought versions.

If you have any Cranberry Sauce left over after your big meal, it will keep in the fridge for several days. It goes very well with cold meats and with vegetarian pies. It is also a brilliant ingredient that can be used to make a number of other recipes. I use it as a basis for my Cranberry Ice Cream and Cranberry Pavlova .

Other festive sauces and accompaniments

Having the right sauces and accompaniments can take a festive meal to the next level. If you are preparing a special festive meal for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year you might like to try some of my other recipes for drinks, snacks, accompaniments and desserts. They are very easy and are a great way to create a celebratory festive feast!

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Recipe for Fresh Cranberry Sauce with White Wine and Orange

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Cranberry Sauce

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 8
  • Total Time: 13 minutes
  • Category: Sauce
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This easy make-ahead Fresh Cranberry Sauce with White Wine, Orange and Cinnamon is the taste of Christmas!


Ingredients

Scale
  • Zest of one orange
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 170 g (6 oz) caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoons white wine
  • 100 ml (4 fl oz) water
  • 225 g (8 oz) fresh cranberries

Cranberries


Instructions

  1. Grate the orange zest into a small pan.
  2. Add the cinnamon stick, sugar, wine and water.  Stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
  3. Add the cranberries.
  4. Bring to the boil then simmer very gently for eight minutes until the fruit is tender and most of the berries have burst.
  5. According to taste, you can either leave the cranberries intact or blend the sauce with a hand blender or food processor so that it is smooth.
  6. Cover and set aside to cool until ready to serve.  The mixture will thicken as it cools and the flavours will develop nicely.

Cranberry Sauce


Notes

The Cranberry Sauce will keep in the fridge for two to three days.  

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Glutarama and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday,  Mollie @ Frugal Hausfrau and Antonia @ Zoale.com