Courtesy of the American Boyds of New Hampshire!
- 6 handles Christian Brothers (cheap) brandy*
- 2lbs dark brown sugar*
- 12 cinnamon sticks
- 30 cloves
- 1/2 bushel Cortland apples (approx 30 large)*
Peel and core apples, then slice into 1/4” rings. Distribute into 2 x 5 gallon* food safe buckets.
Cover with brandy, and add spices and sugar evenly between buckets.
Leave to age for minimum 2 months, but flavours will continue to develop over time. Draw liqueur off, strain, and bottle. Wine finings may be used to clarify.
Apples can be juiced, or blended and pressed to extract more liqueur. If doing this, you can either blend with the rest of the liqueur or enjoy alone, but the extraction will be much less sweet than the rest.
The remaining apples can be used for a pie, sauce, etc, but should be cooked down first as they’ll be too strong for most to enjoy by themselves.
* Metric conversions
A handle is 1.75 litres.
A gallon is 3.75 litres.
2 pounds is a little under 1kg.
Half a bushel of applies is maybe 15-20kg.