A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking, only to get home to find that I didn’t have an operational cooktop. Not wanting any of those glorious berries to go to waste, I made an interesting strawberry jam, a delicious strawberry pie and cake, and with what I had leftover – I steeped the berries in vodka for a week and made this beautiful strawberry infused vodka!
Isn’t the color just glorious? And the flavor? The flavor is all juicy, ripe berries. When I strained the berries out they were pure white. Alcohol is funny like that. You can extract flavor from anything with it! Last year my husband made a really different hot pepper IPA by soaking a few habeneros in vodka, then adding that pepper extract to the final product. We’re looking forward to another batch of that already! But I digress, that’s another post.
This strawberry vodka is mellow enough to be sipped over ice, or to-die-for mixed into an icy glass of lemonade. I’m hoping that the bottle makes it through to the winter. To enjoy the freshness and flavor of these berries in the cold winter months would be a treat for sure! Next year I’ll probably make 2 bottles. Good stuff, folks!
DIY Strawberry Vodka
One bottle (750ml) vodka, decent quality
2 pints (about 1 1 /4 pounds) strawberries
Rinse, hull, and quarter the strawberries and place them in a glass container with lid. Add vodka, cover, and agitate the jar.
Store in cool, dark place for 7 days, swirling around once a day to promote extraction.
After 3 to 7 days, strain with a coffee filter. Store in a bottle – such as the original vodka bottle – and use at your discretion.
Source: Dave Lebovitz, as seen on Punk Domestics
