Dried and Frozen Ingredients
If you want to make a liqueur or wine but can't get hold of fresh ingredients - either they are out of season or grow too far away - then you can use dried or frozen fruits instead
These ingredients are available online, or can sometimes be found in health food stores. Look for places selling loose herbal teas and you might find some suitable dried flowers
Jump to
Dried Fruit
Good quality dried fruit tend to have a more intense flavour than fresh so you won't need as many by weight. They will need to be washed to remove any loose bits from the drying process, and then soaked in water overnight to plump them up
You can substitute most fruits for their dried versions. Here are some that are easy to find online:
Making Sloe Gin From Dried Sloes
For the best results, substitute just over half the dried fruit by weight. Our sloe gin recipe uses 500g (1.1lb) of fresh sloes, so use 300g (10oz) of dried fruit
Wash the dried sloes well - soak for 10-15 minutes, drain, rinse and repeat until the water stays clear
Then soak the sloes overnight and use them in place of fresh sloes in the usual recipe
Dried Rose Hips In A Rose Liqueur
Rose hips make a delicious brandy liqueur and can be found in hedges and gardens in autumn. If you can't wait until autumn then dried rose hips are readily available online
Use half the amount of dried rosehips than you would use fresh
Wash as above and soak them for at least 24 hours until they have plumped up
The liqueur recipe is coming soon, but for a sneak preview use 300g dried hips (500g fresh) for a 70cl bottle of brandy, with 100g sugar - use brown sugar for the richest results but you have to be patient and let it mature a little longer than with white sugar! Follow the method for sloe gin with these ingredients but mature for half as long again
Frozen Fruit
Frozen fruit can be substituted directly for fresh, and in fact many fruits like sloes and hawthorns can be frozen before use to split the skins and help the flavour infuse into the spirit
Just thaw the fruits before use so they come to room temperature, and then use them directly in the recipe
A good supermarket or grocery store will stock frozen blackberries for blackberry whisky, frozen cherries for cherry brandy, or a frozen autumn berry mix is always worth a try in a bramble liqueur
Dried Flowers
Using Elderflowers In Elderflower Champagne
Our elderflower champagne recipe uses 24 flower heads. Replace these with 40g (1.5oz) of good quality dried elderflowers and follow the same method to make your elderflower fizz
Dried Dandelions For Sparkling Wine
Substitute 35g (1.2oz) dried dandelion petals for the 1 litre (2 pints) of fresh petals in our sparkling dandelion wine recipe and then follow the same method to make a refreshing dandelion fizz