Plum Brandy Finale- bottling!

Three months really do fly by!

When I started my plum brandy project back in September, winter, the holidays and cold weather were all just a foggy memory left over from last year.  For some reason it's hard to remember what wool sweaters and gloves feel like when there is a seemingly perpetual mugginess in the air.  With work and life at full speed, the September heat and humidity quickly turned into a December chill.  While I was surviving the October event rush at the restaurant, my plums were gently befriending the brandy they were swimming in.  While we celebrated Thanksgiving and watching the leaves turn colors, the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean were enveloping the fruity flavors with a warm spicy tone.  Now that country has begun its unusually long holiday celebration, it's time to bottle and taste what has been working away all these months.

After gently rocking the large jar back and forth one more time to make sure all the flavors were evenly distributed before they are poured into their own individual bottles, take a ladle and gently remove the swollen plums and put them in a separate bowl.  I am freezing mine to make "brandied plum sorbet or ice cream!  The cinnamon stick has opened up and looks more like the bark that it really is than a dried spice.  The vanilla pod, completely saturated with juice and brandy oozes out its precious seeds.  I took it and put it in a jar with sugar to make vanilla brandy sugar.  I just couldn't bring myself to throw away the pod.  The fruit, stick and pod look pretty, glistening with all the sugars that have been marinating for several months.

I bought small bottles online, washed them out and then poured boiling water into them to make sure to kill anything that might have called them home in the store.  This isn't the boiling that is necessary to can or jar but I the alcohol in the bottles will kill anything else.

Don't these bottles all lined up remind you of the Jean Paul Gaultier ad for his cologne  Maybe it's just me.

source: http://www.ioffer.com/si/fragrances

Strain the brandy to remove any bits of plum that might be floating around.

The mixture won' t be completely clear unless you use cheesecloth (which I do not have) but that's ok.  It will taste the same.

Pour the mixture into the bottles that have dried and cooled off by now, label them, and you are done! Unless you plan to spend MANY nights watching movies and drinking brandy, these dark red bottles can makes great gifts for your family and friends

Spiced winter brandy for the cold months to come.