Homemade Cranberry Liqueur

Fresh cranberries, vodka, sugar and water turn into this delicious Homemade Cranberry Liqueur with time doing most of the work!  This makes wonderful Christmas gifts, poured into pretty bottles, it’s lovely red color is gorgeous!  One of my favorite liqueurs!  It takes about 3 weeks so start it now!

 

Homemade Cranberry Liqueur

I make a lot of liqueurs, especially around the holidays because family members have learned to expect and hope for liquor Christmas gifts!    They say homemade gifts are the best and I have to agree, especially when you can enjoy them for months and months. 

This Cranberry Liqueur is a favorite.  It is so easy to make and so pretty to look at!  You can use it to make Cranberry Mixed Drinks and other cranberry alcoholic drinks.  It’s pretty red color turns every cocktail into a festive holiday cocktail. 

It’s easy to make, but takes 3 weeks of aging, so get started now! 

Ingredients to Make Cranberry Liqueur

• Vodka – use a good vodka that you enjoy drinking.  
• Water – filtered if possible so you don’t get any off flavorings. 
• Cranberries – you might notice that mine look a little frosty.  Cranberries freeze beautifully.  When the grocery store starts stocking the bags of them, I stock up.  I almost always have 4 or 5 bags in the freezer. 
• Sugar – regular white sugar works great fro this. 

Wondering what the difference is between cranberry liqueur and cranberry vodka?  The difference is the sugar and water that you use to make a simple syrup.  Liqueurs have simple syrup or some other sweetener added to them.  A cranberry infused vodka would just be the cranberries and the vodka. 

How to Make this Cranberry Liqueur Recipe

Begin by making the simple syrup – place 2 cups of sugar and one cup of water in a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Let cool to room temperature. 

Place the cranberries in a food processor and pulse until finely minced. 

Combine the water sugar mixture and cranberries in a large jar.   Place in a cool, dark place (I use my basement) for 3 weeks.  If you can remember, try to shake it every other day or so.

When the three weeks is up, strain it through a large fine mesh strainer.  Pour the liqueur either back into the jar that you aged it in, or put it in pretty bottles to give as gifts. 

Normally I tell you to toss out fruit after it’s been used for infusing, but these cranberry bits are delicious.  I used them to make Boozy Cranberry Muffins!  I also plan on scooping some on top of an apple crisp that I’m making next week. 

Cranberry Mixed and Alcoholic Drinks

Even though I highly encourage you to make enough of this to give some as gifts, be sure and make enough to keep some for yourself!  It’s lovely just sipped, but you can also use it to turn any cocktail into a festive holiday cocktail! 

This Cranberry Manhattan is a regular around the holidays at our house!   A negroni gets a holiday twist when you turn it into a Cranberry Negroni.  Sure you could make a cosmopolitan with just plain cranberry juice, but turn it into The Best Cosmopolitan with this delicious liqueur! 

For more infusions to use as liquor Christmas gifts, be sure and follow my Homemade Christmas Gifts Board on Pinterest!