How to make Homemade Hazelnut Liqueur with Top Shelf Essence
This homemade hazelnut liqueur is lovely. It is very simple to make using Top Shelf Almond Liqueur Essence, a base and vodka.
Andy makes this liqueur every Christmas, and sometimes in the months in-between - it is that good! Lovely on it's own, over ice or in coffee. If you dip your biscotti in you homemade hazelnut liqueur you will be in heaven. Guaranteed.
Making Homemade Liqueurs
Some liqueurs I make from scratch without using flavourings, such as my delicious Homemade Apricot Liqueur. That is a particularly good one to make in the run-up to Christmas when soft fruits are not in season in the UK. However some flavourings are difficult to replicate in a drink, which is where Top Shelf Essences come in.
Top Shelf Essences by Still Spirits
Top Shelf has been developed as a range of flavourings making homemade drinks, inspired by spirits and liqueurs all over the world. Each flavouring is beautifully presented in 50 ml (1.7 US fl oz) bottles.
The range is split into Spirits, Liqueurs, Cream Liqueurs and Schnapps.
They couldn’t be simpler to make. Incidentally if you haven't discovered my Homemade Irish Cream recipe yet... well yum.
Why Make Your Own Liqueurs?
In the video below, Andy makes 3 bottles of Hazelnut Liqueur and it costs around £20 including the shop-bought vodka. A branded Hazelnut Liqueur such as Frangelico would cost around £50 for the same amount. So as well as being fun to make, homemade is significantly cheaper. And in this particular case, we prefer this version to the branded one.
This recipe makes a delicious liqueur with a sweet nutty taste.
How to make Homemade Hazelnut Liqueur
Ingredients
Top Shelf Hazelnut Spirit Flavouring
Still Spirits Top Shelf Liqueur Base A
620ml vodka
Cold water
Cleaner/steriliser (to sterilise the bottles. You could also use Milton.)
Plus
You will also need a mixer. We used our Kenwood Prospero stand mixer, you could equally use a hand mixer with a mixing bowl.
A funnel.
Bottles. This recipe makes 1.5 75cl wine bottles of liqueur. In the video below we double it to make 3 bottles. The recipe that follows assumes you are making 1.5 bottles. We used wine bottles, but pretty bottles are even better.
Corks. We like re-usable rubber topped corks for these liqueurs.
Alternatively, you could use flip top bottles so you don't need corks.
Method
- Sterilise your bottles, corks, measuring jug and funnel according to the package instructions.
- Put the vodka into the mixing bowl, reserving a little to rinse out the essence bottle (see later).
- Add liqueur base A.
- Mix until fully mixed and all the little particles have dissolved.
- Add the Hazelnut Liqueur Flavouring into the bowl.
- Rinse out anything left in the flavouring bottle with the vodka you reserved earlier.
- Pour the mix into a measuring jug and add water up to the 1.125 litre mark.
- Give it a final mix with a whisk in the jug.
- Pour the Hazelnut Liqueur into the sterilised bottles.
- Insert the sterilised corks.
- Label.
- Enjoy!
You can drink this liqueur right away, though we advise leaving for a couple of days to allow all the flavours to meld and avoid bottle shock. You will find it tastes better when you've left it like this compared with how it tasted when first mixed.
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