As far as we’re concerned, you just can’t go wrong with blood oranges. They’re sweet, sour, gorgeously colored, and let’s face it, they’re just…cool. They even have a cool name: Blood Oranges–like they’re the bad boys of the citrus world. Just don’t get the dyslexic ones. We made that mistake once. We put them in the fridge and they thought that the bag of “Crisp” lettuce said “Crips”, then there was a huge fight, the poor almond milk got stabbed…Oy. It was a mess…*snicker* Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Now, where was I? Oh right, the oranges.
Sadly, these beauties are only in season for about half of the year, and we miss them terribly during the other half. Instead of pining, though, we started to look for ways of preserving them. If you’ve been following along, it won’t surprise you in the least that we ended up doing so with (Drum roll, please)… Alcohol! Ta-dah! While we’re sure that blood orange preserves or marmalade would be wonderful—we might actually attempt them someday—we settled on a blood orange variation of limoncello.
Limoncello is fairly easy to make at home, keeps forever in the freezer, and is great as a palate cleanser and digestif. We love it, and the thought of a version utilizing one of our favorite citrus fruits was exciting and distressing at the same time, considering that you have to let it “age” for six to eight weeks. Torture.
It’s a vital step, though, because without that mellowing process, it can taste like furniture polish and would probably function fairly well as wall paper remover. That’s not the best use of the oranges or your liver.
In the course of researching traditional limoncello recipes, we discovered that many called for Everclear, or some pure grain equivalent. Not wanting to repeat some fairly unpleasant experiences with said spirit, we went with a less memory-erasing mix of vodka and brandy. The end result has a little more depth of flavor from the brandy, while the vodka maintains the alcohol “kick” of the more traditional versions. You can start taste-testing the batch after six weeks, checking the levels of sweetness and seeing if the alcohol has mellowed sufficiently. It really is worth the wait.
Once it’s finished, it makes a fantastic addition to mimosas, can be sipped on its own, or one of our favorite uses, pour a shot of it over a fruit sorbet and top it off with club soda for a refreshing, highly potable treat at the end of a big meal. Salute!
- 6 blood oranges, peels reserved, juiced
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups vodka
- 1 cup brandy
- In a medium saucepan, add 1 cup of the blood orange juice (reserve any extra for another use), blood orange peels and sugar. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Cool.
- In a large container, combine blood orange mixture with vodka and brandy. Store in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks, sampling occasionally (hic), until the harshness of the liquor has mellowed and tastes dangerously smooth.
- Strain out orange peels before serving.
- Store any leftovers (as if) in the fridge.
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