"Let's Talk About" Series, Booze Recipes, Recipe Box, Sweet Stuff Recipes
Three Recipes: Blackberry Bitters, Blackberry Cordial & Blackberry Simple Syrup
Amber Shehan • July 25, 2014
Summertime berries are ripe and the harvest is coming in! Make blackberry bitters, cordial, and syrup to preserve them for the rest of the year.
Summer days in these mountains mean many wonderful things – fireflies blinking in the dusk, sweet little songbirds chirping, frogs croaking, and one of my favorites – blackberry picking!
It has been a particularly rainy spring and summer and so even the often hard and sour wild blackberry brambles are covered in more deliciously sweet, fat berries than I’ve ever seen.
Every season, I get a small bit o’berries from the wild bramble bushes in our yard, usually around a pint or two. I pick about 1/4 cup each evening and throw them into a large container that lives in the freezer. Once I have enough to work with, I can make something big!
Besides my own yard, I know of some other places nearby where I can go and pick to my heart’s content and have enough for a gallon of wine or mead, or a few jars of jam. But now we are going to talk about my annual tradition of making blackberry cordial.
Like I’ve covered before, tinctures, elixirs, and cordials are easy to make! They are magic in a bottle, bringing a taste of sweet summertime to cold winter nights. A little bit of blackberry cordial in a cup of hot tea or cider can make a bedtime toddy extra special.
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Blackberry Infused Vodka
This vodka is sweetened only by the tart berries, making it an interesting ingredient for cocktails. It could almost be considered a recipe for bitters due to the tartness and the tannins in the berry seeds and skins. If you want something sweeter, then you can add a simple syrup or try the next recipe…
Ingredients:
- 1-2 cups of berries
- your booze of choice – vodka, brandy, etc.
Take a clean jar and fill it with fresh blackberries.
Use a wooden spoon and smash the berries to release their juices.
Cover the smooshed berries with your choice of booze, close it up, and give it a shake. I usually use a good quality vodka, but brandy works well with blackberries, too.
Close your jar, label it and put it aside for at least a month.
After your wait, strain your booze! Clean and sanitize your bottle of choice. Use a funnel with a wire strainer and cheesecloth to strain out the berries and seeds.
Blackberry Cordial
Quite similar to the one above, but this recipe includes sugar.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of berries
- a few tablespoons of sugar
- your booze of choice – vodka, brandy, etc.
Take a clean jar and add a handful of berries. Smash them up with a wooden spoon, and then cover them with a tablespoon of sugar. Repeat until the jar is about half full.
Cover the jar and let it sit for about 30 minutes. The sugar will have released a great deal of juice from the berries.
Cover the smooshed berries with your choice of booze, close it, and shake it until the sugar is dissolved.
Close your jar, label it and put it aside for at least a month.
After a while, strain your booze! Clean and sanitize your bottle of choice. Use a funnel with a wire strainer and cheesecloth to strain out the berries and seeds. Store the finished product in the fridge if it fizzes at all when you open the lid – that means it is slightly fermented.
Blackberry Simple Syrup
If you want to sweeten your vodka but don’t want to use sugar, try this simple syrup recipe. You can make a plain simple syrup or try this one if you have blackberries left over.
Ingredients:
- One cup of water
- 1/4 cup of berries
- One cup of sugar or honey
Boil one cup of water with the berries. Let it simmer for a bit until all the berries have popped open and released their juice.
Set the pan aside to cool long enough to safely strain out the berries. Return the liquid to the pot.
Add a cup of sugar or honey. Stir until it is completely dissolved.
Return it to heat and let it come to a boil for one minute. After that, turn to low and let it simmer for a few more minutes to allow it to reduce and become a syrup.
Allow it to cool down a bit before funneling the syrup into a clean glass bottle with a tight-fitting lid.
Label and date your syrup and store it in the fridge!
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Tagged: blackberries, booze, brewing, cordial, DIY projects, eat your weeds, herbs, honey, infusion, let's talk about, preserving, recipe, recipe box, simple syrup
Amber Shehan
Hi! I'm Amber Pixie, and this is my site. Enjoy the recipes, information, posts, and please feel free to message me if you have questions!
How long will the Blackberry Cordial or the Simple Syrup last? Can either be canned?
Thanks
Hi, Connie! Good questions! Because of the booze content, I’ve had cordials that I sip from every now and then that are years old and never had any problems. I don’t store those in the fridge, either.
The Simple Syrup will last for months and months in the fridge, but I’ve never kept any longer than that – I tend to use them up! Nor have I tried to can syrup before, but I found a good post here that offers advice on how to do just that! http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/simple-syrup-video/
Best wishes!
[…] Blackberry Cordial & Simple Syrup from Pixie’s Pocket. Blackberries and alcohol. Need I say more? Oh and syrup… for the kids, or ’cause maybe you don’t want alcohol on your pancakes. Or, maybe you do… Hmmm…. […]
Delicious! I shared on My Week on Wednesday. 🙂
Incidentally, I have tried to store cordials in the fridge, and they got all gummy; I wouldn’t recommend it. 😉
Ha! Sorry that you had to learn that the hard way, but thank you for sharing your experience!
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Have you done anything on prickly pears. I have them on my farm producing literally hundred of them.
I have not, as they are not native to where I am and have not had an abundance to work with…but here’s a few I found elsewhere:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/prickly-pear-zmaz76soztak
http://honest-food.net/2015/09/21/how-to-make-prickly-pear-syrup/
Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
[…] Blackberry Cordial and Simple Syrup […]
I have been making this for a few years now but 2 years ago, in the first step ( berries in jar with booze, and put away in a dark corner )
one of my jars popped a seal, which I found odd. I opened it to inspect it and it starting fizzing like soda. I didn’t want to throw it away and waste good berries and booze, but I was afraid to finished the process and consume it. So it has been sitting in brandy in a dark corner for a few years. Is it still good?
I’ve made some sparkling tinctures accidentally, myself. I am brave and will taste anything that doesn’t have visible mold or smells bad. Be careful when you try to open it, though! Put it in the fridge for a while and let it calm down else it might fizz over or explode a sticky, foamy mess in your face!