Sloe Gin

Ingredients:

• 1lb/454gm of washed sloes
• 4 ozs/112gm of white granulated sugar
• 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
• Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle
• 2-3 drops of almond essence

Method:

Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.

Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.

Add the almond essence.

Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year).

Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We strain and bottle after a year. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.

Tips and tricks:

• Make more than you need the first year, so you can compare different vintages. This liqueur does improve over time.
• Some people drain the grog through muslin after a couple of months, to clarify the liqueur and bottle. We don’t bother as one old soak tipped that, once the gin is drunk, you can pour medium sherry on the fruit and start all over again! The latter is devilish and drinkable within three months. We have a recipe for this in our wine and gin section.
• Keep your fruit gin away from the light as this will maintain the colour. Unless it is in a dark green or brown bottle. Wrapping it in brown parcel paper will keep out the light.
• Make notes on a label of your fruit gin/vodka /sugar ratio and stick it onto the bottle(s) so that you have a record, if you make a particularly good batch. We note our responses as the grog matures. Yucky after sixth months can be to die for in a year (you will probably not remember without notes). Notes seem boring when you are making the grog but they are so worthwhile when you start again the next year. It won’t be long before you will get a feel of what works well for your taste (and the notes will come into their own).
• Adding almond essence to sloe gin lifts it from good to great. I haven’t tried this with the damson gin but return in a years’ time for our review.
• Don’t kill the liqueur with too much sugar at the start. Use the amount above to start your sloe or damson gin and then every couple of months take a tiny sip. At this time add more sugar if it is too sharp for your taste.
• Gin v Vodka? Vodka can be used as the spirit for these recipes. Although I’m a vodka drinker, we tend to stick to a gin base for our fruit liqueurs.
• A good damson gin can be made from ordinary damsons available in the shops. As they are bigger you would need to put them into a larger Le Parfait jar (I’d use a 2 litre size).
• People have been picking sloes from September 1st around here. Some people say that you shouldn't pick sloes until after the first frost. This can be circumvented by putting your sloes in the freezer overnight. We don’t bother with either method and always have great results.
• This year we have made up a number of small (1lb honey jars) of sloe gin to give as Christmas presents.

Ricciarelli biscuits

Makes about 20-25 biscuits

• 300g whole almonds
• 225g caster sugar
• The zest of half a lemon
• The whites from 2 large eggs
• A few drops of good-quality vanilla extract
• A few drops of almond extract
• Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3. Place the almonds on a tray and roast them for about 15 minutes or so, turning them every so often, until they are golden but not too brown. Leave to cool.

Put the almonds in a small food processor with half of the caster sugar and the lemon zest and blend as finely as you can get them.

Clean a mixing bowl or the bowl of a mixing machine with boiling water to remove any traces of grease. Using either an electric hand-held whisk, or the mixing machine, whisk the egg whites until they are stiff, then add the remaining sugar and continue beating until stiff again. Fold in the ground almond mixture with the vanilla extract and almond extract.

Line a baking tray with silicone paper or baking parchment, dampen your hands with a little water, take about half a dessertspoon of the mixture at a time and roll into balls and flatten lightly until they are about 1-1cm thick; or alternatively, pipe them in a piping bag with a plain nozzle. Place the biscuits on the baking tray about 3cm apart.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until golden. Allow to cool on the tray, then remove and dust with icing sugar.

Coconut Milk Fudge

Coconut Milk Fudge [Coconut Brigadeiros]
Adapted quite a bit from The Brazilian Kitchen, via the New York Times

A.k.a. Coconut Milk Caramels or Coconut Brigadeiros. Nervous about the gooey/sweet factor, I played around a little, using unsweetened coconut milk (the recipe didn’t specify, so I used what I thought would work) and then salted butter (honestly, by accident, but that pinch of salt really helped keep the treat on this side of treacly).

These candies are infinitely tweakable. Personally, I think they’d be fantastic with a pinch of cinnamon, Mexican or otherwise. My mother wanted to try them with a drop or two of almond extract. I think vanilla could work well in there, too. And you can roll them in the suggested toppings — coconut, pistachios and sprinkles — or use your own. Crushed cookie crumbs, anyone?

For classic, coconut-free brigadeiros, chocolate and other versions, check out recipe leads here.

Yield: 24 to 30 candies

1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter (salted will give the candy more contrast)
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/3 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut (I lightly toasted mine, for crunch)
1/3 cup ground pistachios (see Note below)
1/3 cup chocolate sprinkles or “vermicelli” (see Note below)

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, combine condensed milk, coconut milk, butter and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and whisk constantly until fudgy. The recipe notes that when mixture is ready, it will pull together into one soft piece, leaving browned residue on bottom of pan and that this should take 8 to 10 minutes. This took me 20 to 25 minutes, and the candy began taking on a beige, caramelized color.

Slide mixture into a bowl. (Don’t scrape the pan; leave any residue behind.) Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until very firm, at least 4 hours. Or, you could realize that the nanny has to leave in an hour, chill it for only 30 and discover that nothing bad will happen if you don’t wait the whole cooling time. You’ll have to be more careful if you use “real” i.e. meltable chocolate sprinkles but otherwise it will have no ill-effect to speed the process up.)

Scoop out teaspoonfuls of the mixture (I used my one teaspoon measure) and use your hands to roll into balls, about 3/4-inch in diameter. I found having just a drop or two of water in my palms — not wet, just a little moist — helped form them. Set aside on a baking sheet.

Place toppings in wide bowls and roll brigadeiros through them, covering the surface completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 1 month. Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate “vermicelli”: I got a little freaked out when I saw the ingredient list on the chocolate sprinkles I had brought home from the store. Look, I don’t need to pretend that chocolate sprinkles are health food, but I like to imagine I’m eating something with at least a minute smidgen of chocolate in it. I ended up spending way too much on a bottle of “chocolate vermicelli” (they look like chocolate sprinkles but are almost 100% pure chocolate, and delightfully, taste that way too) but I’d buy them next time from Amazon or King Arthur Flour’s Baker’s Catalog for much less.

Pistachios: Since toasted nuts always, always taste better than raw ones, I toasted and ground a batch to coat the candy only to find the brown/green shade… um, a little unpretty. Looks won out and I used ground raw pistachios in the end. I actually ended up preferring the softness of the coating.

Those tiny cups: I know someone is going to ask me where I bought those colorful little candy cups and I’m sorry, as my answer could not be more inconvenient: Vienna. A grocery store. I’m kind of obsessed with going to grocery stores in foreign countries and always walk out with random stuff like this. Anyway, Amazon sells #4 size cups (1-inch base) in brown and white; however, mine are actually #3 size (3/4 to 7/8-inch base) which I found online at a smaller store.