Easy Homemade Blackberry And Apple Gin Liqueur - Larder Love (2024)

Tis the season to make gin! This blackberry and apple gin uses two of the most popular and tasty fruits of the season. Blackberries (brambles) and apples. This to me is Autumn in a glass, rich and warming and full of flavour, cheers!

This is it, the week of the Country Living Fair, the busiest week of the year for me. I’ll be there every day (Thursday through Sunday) doing four talks/demos and classes per day.

I’ve spent the last week up to my ears in ingredients, shopping, crafting kits, lists of tools, books, to do lists and packaging. I’ve rehearsed and tried things out, made changes and often thrown things about in the kitchen when it all got too damn much.

So I wanted to share with you the things I will be doing at the fair. To start with today we have the gorgeous Blackberry and apple gin (aka Brambly Apple Gin) that I will be making in my first demo each day in the Lifestyle Theatre. It is from my Gourmet Gifts For Christmas ebook.

Flavoured Gin

While Sloe Gin is always the standard one thinks of when it comes to fruit flavoured gins I like to try other pairings with this wonderful drink. In spring I use rhubarb for my Rhubarb and Ginger Gin, then there’s my Strawberry and Lavender Gin in summer.

Come Christmas there’s my Cranberry Gin. Do you kind of get the idea I like gin! This Blackberry and Apple Gin is definitely my tipple of choice for autumn/fall.

The great thing about your blackberry and apple gin is that, unlike sloe gin it doesn’t take months to mature. In fact this charming little tipple will be ready to tempt your taste buds in just 2 weeks, which makes it the perfect gourmet gift for Christmas if you get cracking on it just now!

Ingredients for Blackberry and Apple Gin

• A standard 750ml (1 pint) bottle of gin
• 225g/8 oz of blackberries (or brambles as we like to call them here in Scotland)
• The same weight in apples (any type you like)
• A bay leaf
• 200g/7 oz of caster (super fine) sugar.

What type of gin?

Now don’t go lashing out on Tanquery or Bombay Sapphire or anything pricey here, let’s just stick with supermarket own brand gin for this recipe.

What size bottles

If you want to make less of this fabulous hooch just half the recipe. Remember this is a liqueur so you don’t need to give someone a full sized bottle.

I collect small bottles throughout the year (single serving wine bottles are ideal and of course you get to quaff the contents!) and these are the perfect size for mini liqueur gifts as you will get about 6 shots out of one.

Can you use frozen berries?

Yes, frozen berries are just fine for this blackberry and apple gin. Just watch out that when defrosted they are a bit more watery than fresh fruit.

What do you need to make this?

The only tools you’ll need here are a sharp knife, a large jam/pickle jar (I tend to use the Kilner type as the wide mouth makes it easy to get the fruit in and out), cheesecloth/muslin or kitchen roll and a sieve to strain the liqueur and of course your little bottles for gifting.

Make sure that you sterilise all glassware before use. Check out this useful information on how to sterilise glass jars and bottles. The same applies to lids.

See Also

Homemade Chai Concentrate (Starbucks Copycat)Homemade Ginger Ale Syrup + Ginger Mint Lemonade Recipe - Garden TherapyWhite Russian Eggnog Recipe - Quick 3-Ingredient Christmas co*cktail!How to Make Shrubs (aka Drinking Vinegars) Without a Recipe

How to make your blackberry and apple gin

• Wash and dry the apples and rinse the berries. There is no need to peel or core the apples, simply roughly chop them and pack into the jar along with the berries.
• Pop in the bay leaf and then add the sugar on top.
• Now pour in the gin and pop on the lid tightly.
• Give this a really good shake and put it in a dark cupboard for 2 weeks remembering to give it a shake every day for the first week to get all that sugar dissolved into the booze.
• After two weeks the gin will be a gorgeous deep red colour and the fruit will look rather sad.
• Now it’s time to strain the liqueur through the cheesecloth/muslin or paper-lined sieve and decant it into those sterilised bottles ready for giving.

How to serve blackberry and apple gin

This is great served either on its own as a shot (room temperature or ice cold – the choice is yours) or as a long drink with tonic or soda.

It’s also rather good poured over some really nice vanilla ice-cream, maybe with apple pie too. Really you can’t have too much of a good thing in my book!

Blackberry And Apple Gin (aka Brambly Apple Gin) makes a great gift for foodie friends, it’s so easy to make and really tasty and unusual too.

Cheers!

PS Five years on and this is still one of the most popular recipes on my blog!

Looking for more blackberry recipes to try? Then check these out before you go;

Blackberry chutney (aka bramble chutney)

Blackberry and apple cake with white chocolate drizzle

Sweet and sour pickled blackberries

Blackberry jam with bay and vanilla

Blackberry and sage infused water

Super easy blackberry fruit fool

Looking for more homemade liqueurs to try? Then check out my section.

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.