joanne
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Crab Apple Vodka (or Schapps)Been told by a friend of mine that this is something special - funnily enough I've got lots and lots of crabapples at the moment - My major stash I saw on the way to work came good and I'm mowed out with apples at the moment - This recipe doesn't use sugar but the majority I've found do - Think I'll attempt both and see what happens
(Without Sugar)
Direction:
* Wash 10-20 crabapples and cut them in halves. Leave the skin on.
* Put them in a clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid.
* Cover with colourless, non-flavoured vodka - 40% alcohol content (80 proof).
* Let steep for 8-10 weeks or more - in a dark place at room temperature, 18-20°C (64-68°F).
* Shake lightly and taste it from time to time.
* Strain and filter your infusion into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid.
* Store (age) for a couple of months in a dark place at room temperature before serving.
If necessary, dilute your schnapps with the same type of vodka you used as base. Leave it a couple of days to settle.
Serve your crabapple schnapps at room temperature - in suitable glasses.
(With Sugar)
1 (4-quart) mason jar with tight-fitting lid
4 quarts crabapples, washed, cored and quartered
4 cups sugar
3 cups vodka
1. Fill mason jar with prepared crabapples.
2. Add the 4 cups of sugar and three cups of vodka.
3. Store the jar on its side, turning once every day for 16 days to help the sugar to dissolve.
4. After 16 days, filter out the fruit bits and bottle.
Makes 1 quart.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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would it need some sugar adding as the apples can be so bitter?
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joanne
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Oops you just got in before I'd edited to include the sugar version
Joanne
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gil
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Last year I made crab apple brandy (delusions of Calvados). Same idea, but with some sugar, though no record of how much. It was vile at Hogmanay - still very sour, and almost undrinkable. Added some more sugar. I had a sip a few weeks ago, and it was getting a bit better, though you still wouldn't want more than a very very small glass.
Anyone else used crab apples successfully for stuff like this, and have any comments on how it turned out ?
This parallels last year's experience of crab apple and hard pear wine (Babycham with irony), which tasted mouth-puckeringly bad at first, although it is becoming more palatable now. Two of us split a bottle and lived to tell the tale.
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Josey Wales
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All the local crab apples seem to have been cut down. 
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Treacodactyl
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| Josey Wales wrote: | | All the local crab apples seem to have been cut down. |
Then plant some of your own. One of the first things I planted in my garden were a few native crab apple whips. We may not get the use of the fruit but they should eventually flower and make good pollinators for our apple trees and also produce their own fruit.
As a gamekeeper I would have thought your would be involved in a reasonable amount of tree planting.
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Erikht
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I have made apple vodka, but there and then I did not feel it was worth the vodka.
I did brake my own golden rule, though, and did not let it mature further before retasting.
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Josey Wales
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| Treacodactyl wrote: |
As a gamekeeper I would have thought your would be involved in a reasonable amount of tree planting. |
Although I have some input into these matters, most of it is carried out by forestry services. Recommending is as far as I tend to get (then I'm largely ignored by the ecologists) 
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dpack
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i made pear vodka a while back that worked and burnt with a blue flame at minus 15 degrees c . maybe i used a different method ...to flavour a spirit is one way but to use the fruit as mash is another .
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