Frangelico attempt

[kiwistiller]

Hello all, I've been fiddling around trying to make a simplified frangelico, or hazelnut liquer for a while now. I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people have to say about it. this recipe is for 1 litre at around 35%. Warning - this will involve a lot of filtering...

loosely crush about 150g of hazelnuts, skins and all, then roast them in the oven until... roasted? crunchy. but don't burn them! if they do get burned, start over. while this is happening, get out the mortar and pestle and loosely grind up about 20 cocoa beans (you can substitute good cocoa for this, use about 1-1.5 tablespoons depending on how chocolatey you want it) and about 10 coffee beans. chuck the nuts and beans into 400 mls of 90% neutral, and add a clove, a little bit of cinnamon quill (i use about two cm, just chop it off with sissors) and half a vanilla bean. leave this in a place where you can see it and shake the heck out of it whenever you think about it. I'm not sure how long is actually required but I leave it for three weeks, it goes a rich reddy brown.

When you're happy with the maceration, leave it to settle then decant, strain the dregs through a coffee filter if you can be bothered. add sugar syrup / water to taste, a touch of caramel and watch that beautiful red colour go to cloudy brown

from there, just keep putting it in the freezer, coffee filter it, and re freeze it. the nut oils do seem to solidify out in the freezer quite nicely, but it still took me three slow passes through double filters to be happy.

thicken with glucose if desired.

enjoy on ice, with milk (for the ladies ) or as a substitute for frangelico in cocktails and whatnot.

Kiwi

-edit because I spelled the name wrong...

[blind drunk]

Hey Kiwi, how's this coming along? Has the color improved? I just noticed it, looks good. Instead of the bean, how about some really good chocolate? I have a bag of Vahlrona dark that I can't use fast enough. One note, roast the nuts whole, then chop coarsely. Better consistency and less chance of burning. Cheers, bd.

[The Baker]

I wonder how this would go using an amaretto base instead of 'frangelico'?
I have started to crack around fifteen litres of apricot stones (left over from apricot brandy, some of which seems to be okay...) so I will have plenty to experiment with.
Chocolate is nice with almonds as well as with hazelnuts so the result might be nice. I don't care that it might not be traditional.

[kiwistiller]

Hey sorry I just found these replies, I'm having a busy week or two with some family drama

an amaretto base would be interesting indeed. not frangelico, but interesting. I think you'd end up with a much lighter colour and flavour, hazelnuts are bloody oily / rich.

Hey Kiwi, how's this coming along? Has the color improved? I just noticed it, looks good. Instead of the bean, how about some really good chocolate? I have a bag of Vahlrona dark that I can't use fast enough. One note, roast the nuts whole, then chop coarsely. Better consistency and less chance of burning. Cheers, bd.

colour is about the same, I'm going to put on a new batch when I get back to the shed, and may try redistilling to get rid of the oils at cost of flavour. I need a little stove top model for these trials really. thanks for the heads up on roasting whole. as far as using chocolate goes, I don't think you'd have as much luck... there is all that other stuff in chocolate, milk solids and such, but hey neutral is cheap so why don't you do a test of chocolate by itself vs a similar quantity of quality cocoa. I think (complete guess) you'll find the cocoa (or beans) works better, but it will be interesting!

Wait a minute. you have a bag of chocolate that you can't use fast enough? do you know any women?

kiwi

[Bushman]

I am reviving this old post because my son wants to make espresso martini and it calls for 1 part Frangelico, 1 part Baileys, 1 part Kaluha.

[Yummyrum]

Hee hee I remember as a teenager , my sister and her friends found a recipe for Kaluha with a bottle of Vodka , a jar of instant coffee and a shit load of sugar . I remember her jabbering like monkey well into the next day . Kinda missed the instruction about using Decaf Coffee aparently

[NZChris]

Fragelico's website contains a good description of how they make it. https://frangelico.com/about/

I used it to make a couple of batches using a mini gin still.

From my notes:

Blanched and peeled hazelnuts
350F, 175C, for 10-15 mins in fan oven, shake pan several times (this time 17 minutes)
Aim for slightly golden, not brown.
Bash and macerate in neutral for at least 24hrs
Put cocoa powder in the maceration too, but whole beans might be better.
Distill as for gin
___________________
1 liter of 43% neutral
274g roasted smashed hazelnuts
200g Cocoa powder
25mm vanilla pod
Macerate at least 24 hours at room temperature

Make flour paste
Have knob of butter ready
In mini-pot: (Still is an old saucepan and steamer).
Butter the bottom of the pot
Put the steamer basket on
Pour the maceration through the basket and set the basket aside
Stir with the heat on until close to boiling
Put knob of butter in
Assemble and seal with flour paste

1422 100W
1430 140W
1454 100W
1508 1st drip
1556 60 drips/minute, 140W
1630 200ml @ 72%, 100 drips/minute
1647 At 250ml, 240W
1703 At 330ml, 100 drips/minute. I can smell cocoa. Can't see leaks. Patched amy suspect areas
1720 200ml @ 41%, 70 drips/minute
1733 At 450ml
1753 50ml cloudy, stopped. Tastes like salmon, discarded
450ml @ 52%
___________________
At 1000ml will be 33% ABV
Simple syrup:
230g sugar for 23g/100ml sugar, so added to 230ml water and a tiny squeeze of mandarine juice, simmered 7 minutes, left to cool.
Add to distillate.
Make up to 1l with water.
Add:
10 dark roasted coffee beans
1g Angelica seeds

Aged for 8 weeks.
Decanted. Filtered the dregs through my liver.