Merry Christmas from the Layman Farm!
Since I was a kid my family has been making homemade “Kahlua” or coffee liqueur for the holidays. We love to give bottles as gifts to friends and family with other sweet treats. By popular demand, the bottles have been getting bigger and we have even included copies of the recipe. I thought this would be the perfect first post for the ColoradoMan website. What better than to share with the world something that brings my family and friends so much enjoyment…. plus a little high proof coffee liqueur always makes for a great time!
Just one fair warning before we get into the fun, my family’s recipe uses Everclear pure grain alcohol (95% ABV) to give the liqueur its “kick.” The Kahlua you can buy in the stores has a 20% ABV and the Layman Family flavor comes in at 35% ABV. You are welcome to dial down the recipe to suit your personal tastes or keep it full strength. Needless to say, the gift goes a long way:)
Here we go! This is small batch recipe. We usually multiply this 5-10 times and buy the ingredients in bulk to keep things as cost effective as possible.
Supplies:
Large stock pot
Whisk and spoon
Measuring cups and spoons
Funnel
Bottles or jars that can be sealed
Ingredients:
4 Cups of water
3 Cups of sugar
Instant Coffee 6 Tbls (higher quality the better)
Vanilla Extract 6 Tbls (higher quality the better)
1.5 Cups of Pure Grain High Proof Alcohol (Everclear)
Steps to Sweet Success:
First bring the water and sugar to a boil in the large stock pot. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes.
Slowly whisk in the instant coffee to the boiling water. (Some instant coffee will foam up quickly and cause quite the mess) Let this boil for another 5-7 minutes.
Next remove from the heat and let the pot cool to room temp or cooler. Depending on how much snow we have, my Dad will put the stock pot in a snow bank to rapidly cool the mixture. This year we filled the sink with cold water and placed the stock pot in there to cool off since all the snow has melted off.
Once cooled whisk in your vanilla extract and add the alcohol to your taste. We always sample while adding the alcohol to make sure we get the right “kick” while not wiping out the coffee flavor. By the look on Erica’s face this is her favorite part.
After thorough taste testing bottle what is left in clean bottles or jars
Once bottled and sealed with stoppers and corks its time to decorate the “spirited” gifts
We ended up making about 5 gallons and filling over 90 bottles. That is a LOT of LOVE 🙂
From The Layman Family to yours Merry Christmas! I hope enjoy your coffee liqueur and share it with people you care about this holiday season.
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