Over the weekend, Katty’s Kitchen cranked out some homemade Hennessy ginger hooch–OK, ginger liqueur. While it may not be less expensive than buying a bottle of Domaine de Canton, it sure is a whole lot more fun and very flavorful! WHEEE! Instead of brandy, I hooched it up with Hennessy Privilege VSOP Cognac. Wait till you see how easy!

HOMEMADE HENNESSY GINGER HOOCH (GINGER LIQUEUR)
adapted from Marcia Simmons (no relation!), Serious Eats

2 ounces ginger root
1 vanilla bean
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups water
zest of one orange
1 ½ cups Hennessy Privilege VSOP Cognac

This ginger root kinda looks like the shape of Vietnam, does it not?

Peel ginger and slice thinly. I used a vegetable peeler to slice most of the ginger and a paring knife for the rest.

Cut a vanilla bean in half, then slice each half down the middle and scrape the insides. All of it goes into a saucepan with water, sugar and ginger.


Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer about 20 minutes till ginger is soft.

While that’s boiling, zest an orange into an airtight glass container. I grabbed the Microplane and my biggest Glasslock container so I’d have plenty of room for the ginger, syrup and Hennessy.

Ready for how easy this is? Pour ginger/syrup into glass container with orange zest; add Hennessy. Seal the container and give it a gentle shake. Let it steep–just on the counter is fine. I spaced and put it in the fridge. That’s fine, too. After 24 hours, remove the vanilla bean pods.
Hint: don’t throw the pods away–put them in your maple syrup bottle!


24 hours after that, strain out the ginger using a fine-mesh sieve. My fine-mesh sieve is not quite as fine as I needed to get the job done completely. The original recipe calls for straining through a coffee filter. Oh, let me tell you, that went over like a giant lead balloon! What worked purr-fectly, though, was to rig a tea strainer into my drinkin’ jars.


Now it really does look like I’m makin’ hooch! YEEHAAAAAAAAAA!

This concoction is said to last a year, though I’m sure this batch will be but a distant memory by then. No need to refrigerate, either.

I can’t wait to make some seriously sexy adult beverages later this week–either The Gold Rush or a straight up ginger ‘rita! It’s gonna be time for a good time come quittin’ time on Friday! Cheers, amici!

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