As promised, here is another boozy recipe. I have recently lost my blogging mojo but as the weather has taken a turn for the worse today, I have decided to bake Paul Hollywoods iced buns http://dianastaveley.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/iced-fingers-paul-hollywood-recipe.html , must of been inspired by 'The Great British Bake Off' starting last night, now these are very simple to bake, but take a lot of time proving, so I am sat at the kitchen table, doors wide open, enjoying the fresh smell of rain and listening to radio 4 while I blog away and get down all the lovely yummy things I have been making, baking and cooking lately, all while my dough proves away in the airing cupboard, now thats multi tasking !
I previously posted a recipe for apricot liqueur, it was so delicious and worked so well, that when I popped into my local supermarket and saw gorgeous ripe local kent cherries on offer, I got to thinking I should make them into a liqueur as well. Now there are loads of recipes out there for cherry liqueur, mostly are just made using vodka or eau de vie, but I like the delicateness of the previous recipe and so applied the same ingredients to the cherries.
I knew that lavender wouldn't work here, but I still wanted an unusual twist and decided on vanilla, using a vanilla pod in place of the lavender sprig worked marvellously. I am actually rather proud of myself, the more I bake and cook, the more confident I become and now over the years I seem to be able to come up with my own ideas and recipes and they actually seem to work.
Well I better go, buns are now in the oven and will be baked in 10 minutes, do not want to ruin my wonderful multi-tasking by burning them now do I !
Salute ;)
250g granulated sugar
350ml dry white wine
1 vanilla pod, split in half
250g cherries, stoned
150ml vodka or eau de vie
Put the sugar and wine into a saucepan and heat gently until dissolved.
Add the vanilla and cherries. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until the cherries are tender.
Remove from the heat and stir in vodka. Leave to cool.
Pour into a lidded container (I used my largest Kilner jar), cover and infuse for a week in a cool place.
Strain the liqueur through a sieve lined with a double layer of muslin (if you don't have muslin, a clean tea towel or Jeyes cloth work just as well), then decant into sterilised bottles. Seal and store in a cool dry place for a month.
Decant liqueur again, this time through coffee paper, into freshly sterilised bottles.
To make a kir, pour a measure of liqueur (about 3 tablespoons) into a champagne glass and top up with Prosecco, Cava or Champagne.
