Alcohol 101: Make Your Own Amaretto

Don’t buy that amaretto! Make it instead. 

Are you spending $40 in the store for a bottle of amaretto?  You shouldn’t. This is a simple make at home recipe. Save the fancy bottle you drained at Christmas and make a never ending bottle for yourself, or make a few to put in a “What Happens at Poser Homestead Stays at Poser Homestead…” gift basket.

Homestead Amaretto

  • Servings: Depends How Much You Drink
  • Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 2 vanilla beans
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp really good almond extract
  • 1 1/2 cups water
DIRECTIONS
  1. Cook up a syrup using your sugars and water.
  2. When they’re syrupy, take them off the heat. Completely off.
  3. Add the vodka and extracts
  4. If using vanilla beans, add them. 
  5. You can drink this now if using only extracts. Steep for a couple weeks (or more), until the vanilla sets in if you are using beans. 

Common-sense safety note: I once shook vodka I was warming for an extract. It was in a mason jar in a half-pan of water. The jar leaked. The vodka flambéd. I burned my hand but could’ve burned down the house. Be careful with large quantities of alcohol around the stove. 

COST: $$$  You could steal vodka from the dude on the corner with the paper bag around the bottle. Then this’d be cheap. But, I used to work in restaurants. I cannot buy cheap booze. This one’s a “quality over quantity” recipe. 

Things to do with your amaretto: 

Now that you have (nearly) free top-shelf liquor, you’ll want to do something with it. Here are some ideas. 

  • Drink it. Straight–or with an ice cube.
  • Use this in coffee. 
  • Better yet, pour the coffee out of your mug. Fill with this instead. 
  • Wait till someone annoys you. Down a mason jar of this stuff. 
  • Make amaretto biscotti (this is one of my favorite holiday recipes).
  • Use it everywhere recipes call for almond extract–use a little extra for strength.
  • Put this in eggnog
  • Make an amaretto sour 
  • Gift it for holidays with some homemade vanilla and other homestead extracts.Â