Boozed + Infused

Infusing liqueurs at home with inspiring and seasonal ingredients

Category Archives: Recipes


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Mint Bourbon and an amazing cocktail!

We started infusing a mint bourbon shortly before the Kentucky Derby. For those of you who are Mint Julep fans, you may have too!

For our Mint-Infused Bourbon, we used Chocolate Mint, instead of the typical Spearmint. We picked some mint, rinsed it (and allowed to dry), then packed it into a pint jar and covered with bourbon. Infuse until it reaches your desired taste.

So, armed with mint-infused bourbon, we couldn’t help but want to try it in the Shady Porch Cocktail from A Taste of Morning. A Taste of Morning is written by Laurie, proprietor of the Morning Star B&B in Manhattan, Kansas. And by the looks of her posts, this would not be a place to miss if you are in the area.

Laurie’s Shady Porch Cocktail called for Mint-Infused Vodka, and we decided to test it out with our mint-infused bourbon instead. The drink was absolutely spectacular! I’m sure it is also fabulous with the original, vodka infusion.

Bourbon Shady Porch (adapted from A Taste of Morning)

1 1/2 oz. mint-infused Bourbon

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

1/2 oz. mint simple syrup

4 oz. Ginger Ale

Garnish with lime zest and sprig of mint

Combine first 3 ingredients, and stir well to combine. Pour over ice, and add ginger ale. Garnish with lime and mint.

We used Spearmint for our mint simple syrup, but also enjoyed the chocolate-mint flavor in the bourbon infusion. The flavor seemed to be a bit more gentle than the spearmint.

Thank you again to Laurie from Morning Star B&B and A Taste of Morning. We will definitely make this cocktail again. It was really tasty, and will make for great summer gatherings.


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Chocolate Bourbon-Peanut Clusters

These chocolate peanut clusters are made with the bourbon-soaked peanuts from our last post, Peanut Bourbon.

I wasn’t sure how these were going to turn out, so I didn’t measure precisely. These are rough estimates, but I don’t think the amounts are all that important. The recipe was following the same idea and inspiration from Oh She Glows (which we also used on the chocolate covered candied bourbon cherries.)

Chocolate Bourbon-Peanut Clusters

2/3 c. Bourbon-soaked Peanuts (from the peanut bourbon)

1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 TB Coconut Oil

2 healthy pinches of Sea Salt

Roast the peanuts in a low oven (225-275 degrees) tossing occasionally, until the peanuts are nearly dried out. Let sit until the following day.

Heat chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave or double boiler until the chocolate is mostly melted. Stir in the peanuts, and sea salt. Spoon onto a plate or parchment paper and place in refrigerator or freezer to set. Keep in refrigerator until you eat them (which probably won’t be that long…)

The sea salt is what really made these perfect. You could probably substitute a flaked salt or finishing salt with great results. We had a hand-picked, Oregon Sea Salt which gave it just the right flavor.

Enjoy!


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Peanut Bourbon

This is an easy one. And if you like peanuts, you will like this.

Peanut Bourbon

2/3 c. Raw Peanuts (unsalted)

1 1/2 c. Bourbon (or other spirit of your choice)

Remove skins from peanuts, and give just a quick rough chop (not much). Toast the peanuts lightly until they just start to brown and the oils are starting to come out.  Set the peanuts aside and allow to cool. Once cooled, add both the peanuts and bourbon to a jar and cap it. Shake or stir, and keep in a cool dark place. Allow to infuse until it reaches your desired taste. We let this infuse for about a month, but you could do a much shorter time. It started to get the peanut flavor very quickly. Strain and filter with cheesecloth, and if desired, with a coffee filter.

* Keep those peanuts after you have strained them! (And stay tuned for a future post about the delicious treats we made with those infused peanuts.)

If you can’t find raw peanuts, you could probably try any unsalted peanuts. Make sure if you do use raw peanuts that you toast them to bring out the flavors. I made another nut-infused liqueur without toasting and it didn’t turn out as well.

Cheers!


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Sesame-Honey Vodka

I like sesame, and I like honey. When I was a kid, we used to make a variety of a honey-sesame candy, and somehow I thought it would be good to infuse vodka with these flavors. … it is delicious!

Sesame-Honey Vodka

1 oz Sesame Seeds

1 c. Vodka

2 TB Honey

Stirring frequently, toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan on low, until they start to brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add all ingredients to a small canning jar or other sealing jar. Shake, and allow to infuse in a dark, cool place for 3-4 weeks. Strain and filter, with cheesecloth and a coffee filter, then enjoy!

This infusion really tastes like sesame and honey. I think it will be great in cocktails… any ideas?

Ok, so back to these sesame seeds… Since I’ve been on a roll trying to use my infused ingredients, I decided to keep the infused, vodka soaked seeds. I toasted them on low in the oven until they started to brown, stirring occasionally. I then roughly followed the instructions for a sesame-honey candy (from Nourished Kitchen), and … they were pretty good! They disappeared pretty fast.

If you like sesame, you will like this liqueur.

Cheers!
Sesame-Honey Vodka on Punk Domestics


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Star Anise Gin

Anise… I think this is one of those flavors where you either love it or hate it. My mother happens to love it, and she loves gin. So this was one of her Mother’s Day goodies.

Star Anise Gin

20 grams Star Anise

1 c. gin

1 TB Simple Syrup (or more/less to taste)

Place Star Anise in a jar, add gin, seal tight and shake. Allow to infuse for about 2-3 days, then add simple syrup.

At 3 days, this tasted pretty good. Keep infusing until it reaches your desired taste, then strain and filter with cheesecloth and coffee filter if desired. Your infusion time will depend on how strong you want the flavor. It reminded me of a Good and Plenty candy (which I always loved).

I happened to have a lot of star anise, but you could probably cut way back on the amount in the infusion and just allow it to sit for a longer period.

This was very easy and really tasty on its own. And I think might make for a very refreshing gin and tonic!

Cheers to Mom!


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Boozy Prune Jam

Happy Mothers Day!

Our plans changed a bit this year, and we had to come up with a portable breakfast. What we came up with turned out to be a winner.

Remember the prune liqueur taste test from a few weeks ago? Well we still had the prunes soaking in the booze. We finally strained them and decided to make something useful.

Boozy Prune Jam

1 generous cup booze soaked prunes (half of our prunes were soaked in bourbon, half in brandy)

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. dark brown sugar

pinch of salt

– Make sure the prunes are very soft, and have soaked in the alcohol for a long time. (ours had soaked for a month, so they were very soft and spreadable inside)

– Quarter the prunes, then give them a rough chop.

– Place all ingredients in a small saucepan, and bring to a simmer on medium/low, stirring often and breaking up the prunes.

– Reduce heat to low, and continue to simmer until this reaches the consistency of a thick sauce or loose jam. (It will thicken up a bit upon cooling.) This will probably take about 5-10 minutes.

– Remove from heat and allow to cool.

– Store in refrigerator. Will keep for a few weeks.

We made some mini cream scones to spread this on, and it was perfect! In fact, this spread was so tasty, I could eat it by the spoonful. It was such a hit, I’m tempted to get a big bag of dried prunes to soak in booze for the sole purpose of making this jam and canning it (I’m a canning addict).

If you don’t have booze soaked prunes, you could probably start with dried prunes and stew them on low in a bit of water and brandy or bourbon until they get really soft. Then chop them and proceed with the recipe above.

After the success of this spread, I think we are going to start using a lot more of our booze-soaked ingredients.

Have a great Mother’s Day!


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The Blueberry Pieball – our new favorite highball

When I was envisioning the cocktail for our little Portland blogger get-together, I asked Evelyn from Momsicle (the instigator) what she was looking for in a signature cocktail. She threw out a bunch of ideas, one of which was something that would be easy for readers to make for groups, especially summer parties. So that was the focus of our featured cocktail.

Enter the Highball… Highballs are really a whole family of drinks, which includes booze and a non-boozy mixer. I won’t go into much detail here because I’m not an expert.

Some years ago, we had just moved to High Street and were throwing a housewarming party. The theme was Highballs on High Street, and the drinks were so easy to make for the masses (not that the party was that big). The highball of choice for the night: Bermuda Highball, which includes gin, brandy, vermouth and ginger ale or club soda.

Our Boozed + Infused variation… the Blueberry Highball Pieball, made with our Blueberry Gin infused with pie spices.

Blueberry Pieball

1.5 oz Blueberry Gin

0.5 oz Dry Vermouth

0.5 oz Brandy

3 oz club soda

2 oz ginger ale

lemon twist

Blueberry Ice Cubes (made from blueberry juice) and frozen blueberries to keep the drink cold

Pour each of the ingredients into a tall glass, add a few blueberry ice cubes, frozen blueberries, and one regular ice cube, then garnish with a lemon twist.

For a party, we recommend making a lot of this in advance. The blueberry ice cubes and frozen blueberries will help keep the drink cold without watering it down. Make the ice cubes and freeze your berries the night before your party.

blueberry ice cubes and frozen berries to keep your drink cold

Either the night before, or the morning of the party, mix up the booze so that you aren’t measuring out the various ingredients for each drink. If you have 3 cups of Blueberry Gin, get a large jar, bottle, or pitcher and add the 3 cups or infused gin, 1 cup of vermouth and 1 cup of brandy. Stir, and keep in the freezer or refrigerator so that it won’t melt your ice and frozen berries too quickly.

For the party, you can use a large jigger, and just add equal parts of the Blueberry Pieball Booze Mix, Ginger Ale, and Club Soda. This makes it very simple to make a tray of them.

So… get those blueberries out of your freezer (or go pick up a bag from your local grocer) and start infusing some blueberry gin! This was really easy, refreshing, and tasty. And will make for some great fun at your summer gatherings.

For our get-together, each guest left with their own mini bottle of the Blueberry Pieball Booze Mix. Fun for later…

Cheers!

Related Posts

Blueberry Gin

Blueberry-Orange Liqueur


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Coffee Bourbon Milkshake: Quite possibly the best milkshake you will ever have!

I suppose it is possible that I will have a better milkshake at some point in my life. But up to this point, this is easily the best milkshake I have ever had.

Coffee Bourbon Milkshake

2 c. Vanilla Ice Cream (we used natural vanilla with vanilla bean)

3 oz. Coffee Bourbon

Blend in a blender, food processor, or with a hand mixer until very well blended and creamy. At this point, it will be pretty runny. Return it to the freezer, and allow to cool for several hours or longer if possible. If you are very impatient, you can drink it any time. But if you make it in advance and allow it to cool, it will reach the consistency of a soft serve ice cream. Because of the alcohol, it will not freeze too firm, it will maintain this consistency.

I served this milkshake at the get-together with fellow bloggers Evelyn, Poppy, and Krista.  And I know I heard the words “this is the best milkshake I’ve ever had”. I mixed this up a day in advance and was very happy with the result.

If you like thick, creamy milkshakes, and if you like coffee… you know what to do.

ENJOY!


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Blueberry Gin

Today I hosted a small get together for a few Portland area bloggers. It was a bit of a leap of faith for all of us as we had never met, and they came over to my home. Luckily, we are all still alive to tell the tale. And fortunately I believe a good time was had by all. A few fun cocktails were flowing, and eventually we got out a stack of spoons for everyone to start taste-testing (I think they may have tasted a few dozen…)

So, a big thank you to Evelyn from Momsicle, Poppy from Funny or Snot, and Krista from Mostly Mommyhood.

Eventually, I will post about our cocktails (and they might too…) so stay tuned. In the meantime, I wanted to share the infusion that was the base of our featured cocktail from today’s gathering.

Blueberry Gin

2 c. Gin

2 c. frozen blueberries

1/4 c. sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 whole cloves

1/2 inch piece of a cinnamon stick

Place the frozen blueberries in a small saucepan. Crush them lightly (I used a pastry cutter). Lightly cook them on low for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. This amounted to about 1 cup of a gelatinous blueberry goop.

After the blueberries are cool, place all ingredients in a quart jar (or larger). Shake and allow to infuse for at least 4 weeks, stirring or shaking occasionally.When it has reached your desired taste, Strain and Filter through a colander, cheesecloth, jelly bag, and coffee filter.

I got some of the inspiration for this liqueur from Post Prohibition. He recommends using frozen berries because of the organic breakdown of frozen fruit (or something like that… I was willing to give it a try) and also lightly cooking the berries.

The flavor came out great. I really love blueberry pie, so the intent was to include a few spices that you might find in a blueberry pie.

It is delicious! I have not yet tried making a blueberry liqueur with fresh berries, but have had a few blueberry infusions that tasted quite weak. I wanted to make sure we didn’t fall into that trap. The result was great.

Cheers!

Related Posts:

The Blueberry Pieball: Our new favorite highball

Blueberry-Orange Liqueur


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Coffee Bourbon

Coffee… many of us can’t imagine a morning without it (I’m certainly one of them). And coffee liqueur… who doesn’t love a good White or Black Russian?

We knew we wanted to do a coffee liqueur, but took some time trying to decide exactly how we would do it. A lot of coffee liqueur recipes call for vodka, lots of sugar, instant coffee or brewed coffee, etc. In general, we like to use less sugar in our recipes and wanted to incorporate a different booze. So, Coffee Bourbon seemed a natural choice!

Coffee Bourbon

1/4 c. Whole Coffee Beans, Smashed (preferably dark, espresso roast)

1/2 vanilla bean, split

1 TB dark brown sugar (packed)

1 1/4 c. Bourbon

First we took the coffee beans and placed them in two plastic bags. We took a metal muddler and smashed the beans until they were gently crushed (see photo).

Place all ingredients in a small canning jar, and set the jar in a dark, cool location. Every few days, shake the jar lightly.

Infuse for about 3 weeks, or until this reaches your desired taste.

Strain and filter through cheesecloth, jelly bag (if desired) and finally coffee filters.

This coffee liqueur is so rich and delicious. You can taste all the nuances of the bourbon, and the espresso roast coffee gives it such a good flavor.

We are also going to try this same recipe with brandy.

This is a “must try”! If you love coffee, you need to make this.

Enjoy!

Related Posts:

Coffee Bourbon Milkshake: Quite possibly the best milkshake you will ever have!

Coffee Liqueur on Punk Domestics