- 400 g whole sloes, rinsed, stems and leaves discarded
- 400 g sugar
- 550 g gin
Cherry Ratafia - Pam Corbin, River Cottage
Cherry Ratafia - Pam Corbin, River Cottage
Take advantage of the free autumn hedgerow feast and pick some sloes when you see them. Making sloe gin in your Thermomix is super easy and will save you about half an hour on the preparation time (no pricking of the sloes is required). This method takes advantage of the TM’s ability to send the blades in the reverse direction; doing this at Speed 1 knocks the sloes gently which releases the beautiful purple colour of the skins into the gin while helping to dissolve the sugar. This also advances the maturing of your liqueur by about 3 months. Makes 600 ml which is ready for drinking in about 12 to 15 months, though you might want to taste it along the way from 6 months onwards!
Ingredients
Method
1. Weigh all ingredients into the TM bowl and mix 15 minutes/Reverse Blade Direction/Speed 1. Pour into sterilized bottles or kilner jars and cover with sterilized lids. Invert the bottles or jars daily for 1 week, then once every week or two for 3 months. Leave in a cool dark place to mature.
2. When mature, strain the sloe gin into a sterilized bottle and seal if not using straight away.
Variations: Pam “the jam” Corbin mentions several variations on sloe gin in her book “River Cottage Handbook No.2 Preserves”, and all of these variations are easy with your Thermomix:
Damson Gin – 450 g damsons, 225 g sugar, 600 g gin, method as above.
Blackberry and Apple Gin – 230 g cooking apples cored and roughly chopped 5 seconds/Speed 4, then add 230 g blackberries, 230 g sugar, 600 g gin and proceed as above.
Cherry Ratafia – 500 g cherries, 500 g eau de vie, 2 cinnamon sticks, ½ vanilla pod, 150 g sugar, method as above.
Haw Brandy – 450 g haws, 230 g sugar, 600 g brandy, method as above.
Janie's Tip:
Tip: Easily doubled, mix 20 minutes/Reverse Blade Direction/Speed 1.
Tip: Use the sloes to make sloe gin jam or just serve them as is on top of a really good vanilla ice cream for a delicious dessert.
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