Cranberry liqueur combined with a sweet dessert is an incredibly tasty combination. An amazingly bright red color with a taste that has a pleasant sourness will remain in the memory of those who have tasted cranberry liqueur at home for a long time. This liqueur is prepared quickly, since the recipe itself does not raise any questions, everything is clear and accessible.
Cranberries are sorted, removing spoiled berries from the total mass. Frozen berries are also used, in which case they are first defrosted.
Strong cranberry liqueur
The strength of the drink is in harmony with the sourness present, which is neutralized by spices and by adding granulated sugar.
Ingredients to prepare:
- cranberries – 4 cups (half a kilogram);
- vodka or other alcoholic base – 1 liter;
- cardamom – 1 piece (optional);
- 1 clove bud (optional)
Step by step recipe
- Wash the cranberries under running water, allow excess water to escape, then beat with a blender or twist using a meat grinder to obtain a homogeneous cranberry slurry.
- Vodka is added to the resulting puree (you can use moonshine or diluted alcohol), the container is closed and set aside for four days, shaking daily.
- The mixture is passed through a filter, the berries are squeezed out, after which the cake is removed.
- The strained mixture is poured into a saucepan, covered with sugar and cooked until the granulated sugar is completely dissolved. It is important to ensure that the contents do not boil or become too hot.
- Lightly crush the cloves and cardamom, place in a gauze bag and lower it into the tincture for about five minutes. This step is skipped when such spices are not very respected.
- The liqueur is cooled, passed through a filter again and poured into prepared containers. Liquor can be stored in the basement or in the refrigerator for three years.
Sweet cranberry liqueur
This liqueur has a surprisingly pleasant taste. The alcohol base can be any alcoholic product, but vodka or, in extreme cases, diluted alcohol is best suited.
Ingredients
- cranberries – half a kilogram (4 cups);
- granulated sugar - half a kilogram;
- purified water – 250 ml (1 glass);
- vodka or diluted alcohol - half a liter.
Step by step recipe
- Sugar syrup is made from granulated sugar and water. Cool it to 20-22°.
- Crush the cranberries with a wooden rolling pin. Unfortunately, you cannot use a blender in this case, since it will then be very difficult to properly separate the juice from the pulp.
- Sugar syrup is mixed with crushed cranberries, and vodka is poured into the total mass.
- Cover the container with a lid and transfer it to the pantry for 25 days, shaking well every day.
- The finished liqueur is passed through a filter and poured into prepared containers. This liqueur can be safely stored in a basement or refrigerator for 3 years.
Of course, nowadays it is not a problem to buy any alcoholic drink, in particular liqueur. Supermarket shelves are literally bursting with an abundance of goods. But no one knows what is added to store-bought drinks, what dyes replace natural berries. Therefore, let's not risk our health and try to prepare one of the sweet treats at home - cranberry liqueur. This drink has a rich red color and a slightly tart taste. Cinnamon, cardamom and cloves add additional spicy notes, making the taste of the liqueur unusually rich.
Ingredients
- fresh cranberries – 300 g
- vodka – 250 ml
- granulated sugar – 200 g
- cinnamon – 1 stick
- cloves – 5 buds
- cardamom – 4-5 boxes
Yield: 500 ml
How to make cranberry liqueur
1. Sort the cranberries, place in a colander, rinse well and let the water drain completely.
2. Pour the berries into a blender bowl.
3. Grind the cranberries to a smooth puree.
4. Place the puree in a 1 liter jar.
5. Fill with vodka.
6. The resulting mixture will take up a little more than half the volume of the container.
7. Close the jar tightly with a lid, or better yet, roll it up like a preserve so that the alcohol does not evaporate. Place in a warm but not hot place and leave for 5 days.
After this time, strain the cranberry liqueur through a sieve. And additionally filter the resulting liquid through 2 layers of gauze.
8. Add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Cook the mixture over low heat, remembering to stir, until syrup is obtained. This will take 3-4 minutes.
9. Strain the syrup and cool to room temperature. While cooling, stir the contents of the pan periodically.
Combine the alcoholic cranberry infusion with sugar syrup, mix well and pour into a half-liter bottle. Close the bottle with a cap and let the liqueur brew for a week in a dark place.
Cranberry liqueur is ready. Serve it to the festive table and treat your dear guests.
Store liqueur in the refrigerator.
Note to the hostess
For making liqueur, choose ripe, bright red cranberries. Spoiled (rotten, sour) berries are absolutely not suitable.
If you don't have a blender, you can mince the berries or mash them with a regular pestle.
If you do not like the aroma of the above listed spices, you can not add them to the drink at all or exclude any of them.
Cranberry liqueur, prepared at home using a very simple recipe, is in no way inferior in taste to the famous Finnish liqueur “Lapponia”.
The bottles in which it was sold about 20 years ago had a long neck with a thickening in the middle.
While pouring the drink, you could hear a characteristic “gurgling” sound, which gave the drink another name: “23 gurgles”. I can’t say why exactly 23.
Finnish cranberry liqueur, rich in color, with the sourness characteristic of cranberries, quickly gained wide popularity, becoming the “highlight” of the dessert table.
It was very difficult to buy it, but I wanted to please the guests and myself. Cranberries could be bought at the market. There was no Internet then, so it was not possible to find a ready-made recipe.
Therefore, I had to go experimentally through trial and error to find my own recipe for this delicious drink.
Homemade cranberry liqueur recipe
Making cranberry liqueur, which received the affectionate name “Cranberry” among the author’s relatives and friends, turned out to be very simple.
You will need the following ingredients:
- 0.5 liters of vodka or other type of colorless alcohol
- 0.5 liters of cranberries
- 150 g sugar
Cooking procedure
- Wash the berries, mash them with a wooden or plastic masher.
- Add sugar and mix thoroughly, place in a jar with a capacity of at least one liter
- Bring alcohol to 38 - 40% strength.
- Pour the liquid into a jar of berry puree, place it in a dark place for a week, shaking the contents daily.
- Filter through multi-layer gauze, remove the cakes. Leave to settle for another day.
- Carefully pour the clear fraction into a beautiful bottle; the cloudy fraction can be “used in working order.”
Some points to pay attention to when making cranberry liqueur at home.
- Since liqueur is considered a women's drink, it is advisable to use vodka with a strength of 38 - 40% for its preparation.
- When using alcohol, it should be diluted with purified or distilled water to the desired strength. Moreover, it is alcohol that should be poured into water, and not vice versa.
- If cranberries are pre-frozen and then defrosted, there will be fewer squeezes during the liqueur making process, and the color of the drink will become more saturated.
Homemade cranberry liqueur, prepared according to the recipe presented above, was very difficult to distinguish from the Finnish “original” in appearance and taste.
By the way, cranberry is called tranbär in Swedish, but my Swedish husband, who is our main berry picker, calls it nothing more than “Kliukvinka-bär”, that is, Cranberry-berry.
Happy people live in Finland: there, in the dense forests and swamps, magnificent northern berries grow: cranberries, cloudberries, lingonberries.
They can be eaten in their natural form, or you can make jam or interesting alcoholic drinks, such as Lapponia. Cranberry liqueur is one of the most popular varieties of this drink (see others).
Cranberries hold the lead among other berries in terms of the amount of vitamin C. They contain so much of this substance necessary for every person that even official medicine confidently classifies cranberries as medicinal plants. Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, fights colds, and helps strengthen the immune system.
Due to this, cranberry and its infusions are prescribed for acute respiratory viral infections and influenza, as well as for genitourinary ailments (cranberry juice is necessarily prescribed for the treatment of cystitis and pyelonephritis).
Cranberries contain a lot of potassium salts, which help normal metabolism. It saturates the body with malic, citric and other acids that are difficult to obtain from other products.
Frequent inclusion of berries in the diet prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques and tones blood vessels. In general, if you want to be healthy, always buy cranberries.
Liqueur from Lapland
It is the Lapponia cranberry liqueur that enjoys special love among the population of Finland and other countries. But Lapponia also has other varieties; they may be a little less healthy than cranberry liqueur, but no less tasty.
How to prepare: stages of production
Any liqueur of this brand goes through 4 stages of preparation before reaching the consumer’s table:
- Stage one: collection. The berries are picked by hand and only in Finland, in environmentally friendly places. Then the most useful thing is separated - the extract - by infusing the berry mass in alcohol.
- Stage two: double distillation. In this case, berry juice and sugar syrup are used.
- Stage three: exposure. The future drink is “simmered” for 2 whole months, waiting for all the beneficial substances to pass into the liqueur.
- Stage four: cleaning. Liquor is purified by frost. After this, it is ready to eat.
Varieties
Cranberry "Lapponia" is called " Lapponia Karpalo" There is a rule for serving a drink: before pouring it into glasses, it should be cooled.
Other types of liqueur:
- cloudberry (“Lapponia Lakka”);
- from sea buckthorn (“Lapponia turni”);
- lingonberry (“additional word” - “Puolukka”);
- blueberry (“Mustikka”).
If you want to treat your friends to any of these drinks, you can’t go wrong by pre-chilling the chosen liqueur and serving it after the main meal as a digestif).
And now - cocktails
Finland Coffee
For a cocktail, take cloudberry liqueur - 20 ml. Brew 120 ml of coffee, add liqueur and 20 ml of vodka.
Cream - a couple of tablespoons - and sugar (or sugar syrup) are also useful for taste.
Lingonberry
Take 30 ml of lingonberry liqueur and dilute it with 20 ml of vodka. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon and throw ice cubes into the glass. You can drink!
Jelly cocktail “Mishka”
A single jelly candy “Mishka” can turn a fairly ordinary drink into a very original cocktail.
Cooking and mixing:
- 20 ml sea buckthorn liqueur;
- 10 ml;
- 20 ml vodka.
Pour everything into a shot. Then we put the “Bear” on a toothpick and decorate our drink.
Blueberry miracle – Galaxy Fix
Mix 25 ml of blueberry cocktail and lemon juice (lime juice is also an option), dilute with 25 ml of vodka and pour a little sugar syrup into the mixture (to taste).
And again cranberry
And this drink is called " Cranberry extravaganza" For it you will need to mix “Lapponia karpalo” (30 ml), as well as cranberry juice (100 ml) and 20 ml of sweet peach liqueur.
To add spice, add lemon juice. The finishing touch is to add ice cubes to the glass.
Homemade recipe
Of course, you can’t make real Finnish liqueur at home. But you can make your own drink based on cranberries (which, by the way, our forests are also rich in).
Cooking with vodka
This drink is suitable for lovers of “serious” strong drinks. We take:
- cranberries (4 cups);
- half a kilo of sugar;
- liter of vodka;
- clove bud.
Beat the cranberries until more or less homogeneous, add vodka to it and leave for four days. Then strain the mixture, add sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves. For 5 minutes, you can dip a linen bag into the mixture, in which a clove bud is placed.
All that remains is to filter and bottle it, which should be stored in the refrigerator.
How to make it sweeter
The next recipe is for those with a sweet tooth. The composition of the products is almost the same, only 2 times less vodka is required - only half a liter. And you still need to prepare water (a glass).
Make syrup from water and sugar, mix it with mashed cranberries and put it in the pantry for a month. Then we filter it, bottle it and put it in the refrigerator.
Lapponia liqueurs have many ardent fans among the residents of our country. But if they are not sold in your area, do not worry: prepare your own “Lapponia” in the kitchen and enjoy.
~CRANBERRY LIQUEUR~
________________________________________________________________ In the fall, you can collect a large number of berries and prepare them in different ways.
 |  Cranberries are a very tasty and healthy berry. Its fruits contain a large amount of organic acids, pectins and vitamins. Due to the high content of useful substances and microelements, cranberry drinks have a tonic property. Alcoholic drinks based on this berry have a bright taste and aroma, and they can always be used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. In small quantities, cranberry liqueurs and liqueurs increase appetite and have a beneficial effect on the digestive system, which is why they are often served as an aperitif. |
Cranberries - 4 cups
Sugar - 3 cups
Vodka - 750 ml A simple recipe for cranberry liqueur _________________________________________________
Making cranberry liqueur at home is very simple. Sort out the ripe cranberries well and rinse them in running water. To drain excess liquid, it is best to drain the berries in a colander and let them sit for a few minutes. 
Using a blender or meat grinder, chop the berries, put the resulting puree in an enamel pan and pour in vodka. 
Leave the berry mixture in a cool place for 3 days, then strain through a fine strainer or gauze filter. 
Pour sugar into a saucepan, pour in strained vodka tincture, put on low heat and heat to 70-80 degrees. When the sugar is well dissolved, remove the liqueur preparation from the stove and cool. 
Place 1-2 cloves (optional) in a glass jar or bottle and carefully pour in the chilled liqueur. Place the drink in a cool place. Within a few hours, cranberry liqueur prepared according to a simple recipe can be tasted.
Cranberry liqueur with cloves and cardamom
_________________________________________________
This recipe for cranberry liqueur will appeal to all lovers of homemade alcoholic drinks. The liqueur turns out to be very tasty and aromatic, drinks smoothly and can be used to soak homemade baked goods and make cocktails.
To prepare it you will need to take:
Ripe cranberries - 8 cups
Sugar - 1 kg
Vodka - 3 bottles
Cloves - 3-4 buds
Cardamom - 2 pcs
Wash the ripe berries well, drain and puree them using a masher or blender.
Mix vodka and berry puree in a large glass jar, close tightly with a nylon lid and leave in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Open the jar, drain the liquid through a fine strainer or gauze filter into an enamel pan. Pour sugar into the vodka infusion, mix well and heat in a water bath until the sugar is completely dissolved. Put a few pieces of cardamom and clove buds on a piece of gauze, tie it with a thread and put it in a jar to infuse the liqueur. 
Pour the cooled infusion of vodka and cranberries on top, close the lid and place in a cool place or refrigerator. After a week, you can strain the drink, remove the bag of spices and enjoy the aromatic taste. 
Homemade cranberry liqueur can be stored for several years - the longer it sits, the tastier and more aromatic it will be. Give yourself a piece of warm summer on a cold winter evening by saving a bottle of this homemade drink.
