With a few exceptions, I am not very fond of syrupy sweet liqueurs. Laponian Liqueurs AB in Gällivare, Sweden, makes three not overwhelmingly sweet tasting liqueurs. Cloudberry Liqueur is one of them. (The other two are Arctic bramble liqueur and Cranberry liqueur).

The berries are purchased from berry pickers and placed in a stainless steel tank together with an alcohol base (sorry, I don’t know what kind of alcohol they put in the tank).

They let the mixture sit for a month. Next, the mixture is pumped into a press. From the press, the must is pumped into another tank. Then comes filtering, sweetening and the alcohol content test. This is followed by bottling and finally the product is ready for the consumers.

Making liqueurs at home is easier and hardly an exact science. I had a small bottle of a Finnish cut brandy (Jaloviina) in the fridge and lots of cloudberries in the freezer. Jaloviina (3 stars) is made of three fourth of brandy (French cognac), neutral grain spirit and water. No added sugar whatsoever.

So, I decided to make a small amount of a simple homemade cloudberry liqueur. Mostly for the fun of it.

INGREDIENTS:

* 300 grams cloudberries (or bakeapple, whatever you call it)

* 350 ml brandy

* 3-4 tablespoons icing sugar, or more

METHOD :

1. Place the cloudberries in a wide mouthed glass jar.

2. Add brandy and put the lid on.

3. Store in a warm, sunny window for a week.

4. Shake the jar once a day.

5. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve, or a filter.

6. Add icing sugar.

7. Transfer the liquid to a glass bottle with a tight cap.

8. Let the liqueur mellow for at least 3 months, preferably longer.

To suit your own preferences, add more icing sugar if you like. If it ends up tasting too sweet or too strong, you can always dilute it with water or liquor.

You can either drink the liqueur as it is, or use it as an ingredient in desserts or cocktails. Finlandia Coffee for instance: Pour 2 centiliters vodka, 2 centiliters cloudberry liqueur into a coffee mug and fill with strong hot coffee. Garnish with whipped cream on top. (2 centiliters are 4 - 5 teaspoons approx). Finlandia coffee can be considered to be a variation on Irish coffee.

The unused thawed cloudberries in the freezer bag were used for jam.

Nigella Lawson’s incredibly simple recipe for jam was used (originally the recipe of Hands-free Raspberry Jam from How to be a Domestic Goddess). Ripe cloudberries are as juicy as ripe raspberries. The jam came out perfect. The flavor was fresh like the flavor of raw stirred berries. I didn’t add as much sugar as Nigella’s recipe calls for (much too sweet for me). I also added half a teaspoon of citric acid for some extra acidity.

Click here to view Nigella’s online recipe: Raspberry Jam.

Source: My Recipes