The bumper apple harvest has been fruitful indeed. We’ve used it as the main ingredient in apple jelly, as a base for bramble jelly, as a major part of two huge batches of apple chutney and now, finally, as the favour for two bottles of apple schnapps.

We still have some apples left, but they’re getting well beyond their best now, perhaps because some of them were windfall fruits, so I think this may be the last thing we do with them. Still, we’ve not done bad in using our 180 fruits.

Fortunately apple schnapps is a quick and easy make, which is just what we needed after days of jam and chutney bottling.

Ingredients One large, or two small apples A heaped teaspoon of sugar A little hot water A bottle of vodka		Equipment needed Airtight bottle Small bowl Knife Teaspoon
Method Sterilise your bottles and dry them thoroughly, then measure out your sugar into a small bowl. Pour boiling water onto the sugar and stir using a teaspoon until it has fully dissolved. Once you can no longer see the sugar granules, pour the syrup into the bottle. The reason for adding sugar to the mixture is to bring out the flavour of the apples, although you don’t need to add as much as we did with the sloe gin.
Slice your apple into small pieces. These should slip easily into your bottle but bear in mind that when you have finished drinking your schnapps you will also want to be able to get them out so that you can re-use the bottle. Peeling the apples isn’t necessary, and red ones look great through the glass. We are making two bottles: one with a red eating apple, and one that is half of an eating apple with quarter of a cooking apple.
Once you have loaded up your bottles with the chopped apple, fill to the neck with a regular, unflavoured vodka.Cap it up and give it a good shake, then put it on a shelf in a cool dark cupboard for a good two to three months (making it now will be perfect for Christmas). As with the sloe gin, agitate it every couple of days by picking it up and giving it another shake to mix the contents.

Related posts:

1. Drinking the Apple Scnhapps
2. How to make apple jelly
3. How to make blackberry and apple pie: simple recipe