Sloe Liqueur

Ingredients

• 1 kg sloe berries (harvested after first frost)
• 500 g raw cane sugar
• 1 Vanilla bean
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1.5 l gin

Instructions

1. 1.

   Wash sloes and pat dry. Place in a large pot and pour boiling water over them until just covered. Leave to stand overnight. The next day the sloes will have burst from absorbing water. Drain the excess liquid.

2. 2.

   Layer fruit with sugar in a large bowl and leave overnight so the sugar can dissolve.

3. 3.

   Then split the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds, and combine both with cinnamon and the infusion in a sufficiently large bottle (preferably a glass balloon) and fill with gin. After four to six weeks of maturation the liquid will have turned deep carmine red and can now be filtered into bottles.