Tag: sugar

Just 44 days required

After 44 days, strain the liquid off the orange, decant into bottles, and enjoy chilled.

I have always enjoyed making things for Christmas, either to offer guests or maybe as presents, this year I have a number of liqueurs macerating in jars in the downstairs powder room, it’s cool and north facing.
This is one that really intrigued me, I found it on a website http://www.instructables.com and just had to try it.

Vodka an Orange and some expresso coffee beans
Vodka an Orange and some expresso coffee beans

It is a traditional European aperitif made using an orange, coffee beans, sugar, and grain alcohol (vodka can also be used if you can’t get grain alcohol)

shake everyday till the sugar is dissolved
shake everyday till the sugar is dissolved

Wash your Orange first. Make 44 holes in the orange and poke a coffee bean in each opening. Then put the orange in a jar.(I’m using a jar I picked up in my local charity shop for 50p) Fill the jar with 4 cups of grain alcohol/vodka. Then add your sugar over the top of the alcohol. The original recipe called for 44 sugar cubes but 6 tablespoons of sugar is enough.

22 days to go
22 days to go

You will need to store it for 44 days in a dark, cool place before removing the orange/coffeebeans. Be sure to shake it up every once in awhile to ensure the sugar dissolves. Do remember to make a note of the date you started, or make a note on your calendar of when it will be finished.
After 44 days, strain the liquid off the orange, decant into bottles, and enjoy chilled.

Kendal Mint Cake

The 17 year old, who doesn’t do the “healthy” version of anything, wanted chocolate coated.

Whilst we were on Holiday in The Lake District the 17 year old, who did not come along, asked us to buy her a gift of Kendal Mint Cake.

Kendal Mint Cake
Kendal Mint Cake

For the uninitiated Kendal Mint Cake isn’t a cake so much as a block of sugar with added peppermint oil, a lot of peppermint oil. The 17 year old tells me it is “sick”, this apparently is a good thing, indicating that she very much enjoys it.
Kendal Mint Cake comes in White, made with refined sugar, brown, made with unrefined sugar, and chocolate coated for the real hedonists amongst us. The 17 year old, who doesn’t do the “healthy” version of anything, wanted chocolate coated. Not that any of it could be seen as anything but a recipe for tooth rot.
Its real purpose is as a preservable food ration for climbers and explorers on extreme expeditions being a large sugar hit in a pocket sized block. 32 calories a gram, which is why she, skinny Minnie, eats it, and I don’t.