some of these........
and lots of these.....
which are sloes, and along with gin and sugar, make sloe gin. The blackthorn bushes were full of the things, and we picked a big bag to bring home and make into sloe gin... Happy days! I stuck the sloes in the freezer until I had time to make up the gin.....guess what the plan is for this weekend..?!
So I've dug my sloe gin recipe out, which, incidentally can be used for other fruits and other spirits, such as damsons, plums or cherries and vodka or brandy; damson brandy is my other favourite (and my mum's!). You can use this basic recipe and amend the ingredients according to the fruit and spirits you want to use. So here goes....
400g fruit (sloes, damsons, plums or cherries)
710ml alcohol (gin, brandy or vodka)
350g sugar.
Make sure that the fruit is dry and remove any stems. Stick the fruit in the freezer overnight (or longer if necessary - doesn't seem to do them any harm!), this will avoid the need to prick each of the fruits with a fork (which can be a very fiddly task with little sloes!)
Put the sloes into a large clean jar, kilner jar or the bottle that the alcohol came in, if the neck is wide enough! Pour the sugar on top of the sloes, and then cover with the alcohol (you might need to use several containers to use up all of the ingredients.)
Replace the lid on the container and give it a bit of a shake, to start to dissolve the sugar, and continue to shake once a day until the sugar looks dissolved. Put the containers into a dark place for about three months.
After that time, strain the sloe gin through a coffee filter placed onto a sieve and use a funnel to pour the alcohol into sterlised bottles. The recipe makes about 800ml of sloe gin.
The alcohol becomes quite liqueur-y, so sloe gin is much sweeter than neat gin and thankfully damson brandy tastes nothing like neat brandy (yuck!). I drink the damson brandy neat and prefer the sloe gin mixed with tonic water.
Get making now and you'll have home made pressies ready in time for Christmas. Hurrah!
Oh and I just thought I'd post this photo, as it's so cheery especially with autumn weather approaching! Something else we found on the foraging course....
