Back at the end of July we experienced Apricotageddon, which resulted in a lot of new apricot recipes. We are going through the jam quickly, but we have 33 jars, so it’s not a concern. Seriously though, lots of apricots, which means we had lots of apricot pits. Most I threw out but after a while my curious brain began to wonder if there were recipes that I could use the pits in….other than, you know, homemade cyanide. Funny enough, someone on the garden group that I belong to made that quip when I was asking about apricot pits.
So here is the thing. The centers of the pits, if broken open, do contain small amounts of cyanide. So a good rule to use is not use any pits that are cracked or open for anything. Also, we didn’t know this before the crazy season we had and my researching of apricot pit recipes, so now we are super paranoid about our dogs finding pits and chewing on them. Of course, Basil will always find the ones that we didn’t, but we are usually able to get it from her before she can get too into it.
On to the recipe. It is super simple!
INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 cups clean & dry apricot pits
- 2 cups vodka (40% alcohol is best)
- 3 tbsp fine granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS
Place the pits and the vodka in a large sealable glass jar or bottle. Make sure the lid seals tight.
Let it steep for 2 months. The vodka will turn dark amber over time.
At the 2 month point, strain the pits through a strainer with a layer of fine cheesecloth over a measuring cup. This will take all the sediment out.
Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Taste it and adjust the sugar if you would like more sweetness. If the almond flavour is too intense, add more vodka.
Bottle the amaretto in a container or bottle that has a lid that seals tight. Lasts a year.
So it has been the 2 months since we started steeping our pits in vodka and the colour of the vodka has turned a beautiful dark amber. I pulled all the pits, strained, added sugar and poured it back into the fun bottle that I had found. Then it was time to try it out.
DELICIOUS!
I was impressed. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what we ended up with. It has a beautiful almond-nutty flavour and is quite smooth. I ended up adding a tad more sugar, but overall it was so tasty. We limited ourselves to the one small liqueur glass of it as we want to spread out the enjoyment of it.
I am kicking myself now for the sheer amount of pits I threw out while processing the apricots and am now looking forward to our neighbours tree overtaking our yard again so that we can once again harvest more delicious apricots. I will be keeping all of my apricot pits in future years. You can also apparently do this with cherry pits, but apricot is easier due to the size of them.
Cheers!
JK Building The Dream 