Homemade Amaretto

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My amaretto recipe is less sweet, slightly bitter with a nice and toasty almond flavor- despite not using any almonds and using all natural ingredients.

Amaretto is a staple at any bar, It’s used in plenty of popular cocktails like amaretto sours. I also used it in my Persian Love Cake cocktail. It adds a delightful almond flavor to cocktails, but a little goes a long way. Most commercially made amaretto is way too sweet and not balanced at all. It’s likely not made using the best ingredients and even uses food coloring to give it its amber color.

You’ll need the following equipment:

Strainer
Knife
Sealable Container
Bottle

Ingredients:

Apricots
Mahlab
Vanilla Bean Pod
Vodka
Brandy
Turbinado Sugar
White Sugar

The main ingredients in this recipe are vanilla, apricots and mahlab. Mahlab is a spice that is used throughout the Middle East and Greece as a baking spice. It is essentially made from the kernels inside the pits of cherries. These kernels are extremely fragrant and taste like bitter almond and cherry. It’s typically ground into a powder and used in baking breads and desserts.

Cherry pits, as well as other stone fruit pits contain amygladin- which when ingested becomes cyanide, so do not eat these raw! Most mahlab you buy in a spice store will typically have been processed to remove the amygladin, but just to be extra safe, I recommend toasting them in the oven, since heat destroys the chemical compound. I’m toasting 1 teaspoon of mahlab for 10 minutes at 350 degrees farenheit. They will smell really fragrant like cherries. After taking them out of the oven, I let them cool a bit, then slightly crush them with a mortar and pestle. Don’t grind it too much, or it will be really hard to strain out the mahlab powder.

Now I’ll just cover these with 1/2 cup of vodka and let this steep for 1-2 weeks. The vodka has taken on a tan hue and is slightly cloudy.

The next step is to infuse some brandy with apricots and vanilla. I’m using 6 apricots. I like to roughly chop these to increase surface area for the infusion. I’m also adding 1/2 of a vanilla bean pod.

I’ll place the apricots and vanilla into a sealable container and add 3/4 cup of brandy. This needs to infuse overnight. This apricot brandy came out so well, I think i might just have to make a batch to use on its own.

The last step is to make a simple syrup. I’m using 1/4 cup of white sugar and a quarter cup of Demerara sugar along with a half cup of water and heating until all the sugar has dissolved.

Once that’s cooled off, we can go ahead and strain then blend all the components.

While you can use this right away, I recommend letting it bottle condition for 2 weeks. You’ll see some sediment forming at the bottom that you can strain out. If you want to clear this even faster, you can use wine fining agents.

But, I’m too impatient to wait, so I’m going to taste this side by side with some Disaronno amaretto.

Just off the bat you can see a big difference in color and clarity. Mine will get lighter as it stands, but right now its pretty dark, almost opaque.

They’re both very fragrant. Disaronno has that strong bitter almond scent, while mine has a lot more cherry and toasted almond on the nose.

Tasting notes on Disaronno- its a bit harsh, its very sweet and almost medicinal, but pleasantly so.

My homemade amaretto- while a bit less harsh, will mellow with time. It’s a bit more balanced, with less sweetness, and more of a nutty flavor. It has an ever so slight bitterness that gives it structure. I think it turned out fantastic and I’m really looking forward to trying it again in two weeks.

Ingredients:

6 Apricots
1 tsp Mahlab
1/2 Vanilla Bean Pod
1/2 cup Vodka
3/4 cup Brandy
1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/4 cup White Sugar
1/2 cup water

Method:

Toast Mahlab in the oven ~10 mins at 350 F
Combine vodka and toasted Mahlab and let infuse for 1-2 weeks. Strain out and discard mahlab seeds.
Combine apricots, vanilla and brandy. Infuse for 8 hours. Remove vanilla pod and apricots.
Combine sugars and hot water. stir until sugar is dissolved.
Combine infused brandy, mahlab extract and sugar. Let rest in the bottle for 2 weeks for best flavor.