Make an extra batch of homemade cranberry sauce and pair it with vodka to transform it into a festive Cranberry Martini holiday cocktail.
I’m totally not a heavy drinker. Don’t say it. I know you can’t tell considering I make a pretty strong cocktail like my pumpkin pie martini or a stiff blackberry gin fizz every Friday. The drinks are mostly for my husband, and because I like to find boozey drinks that actually taste good to me. You see, I love a good spicy Bloody Mary, especially when served up along some some classic eggs benedict. But other drinks take me some getting used to.
It turns out I made some fresh cranberry sauce with orange and Grand Marnier, and I just couldn’t get enough of that stuff! I’m going to see how many recipes I can use it in. I decided to give some Vodka a long cold soak in it to see what would happen. What happened was a really good cocktail emerged. Don’t get me wrong – its strong. But martinis are supposed to be strong, right?
CRANBERRY MARTINI
Ingredients
- fresh cranberry sauce
- 1 750 milliliter bottle good-quality vodka
- Fresh Cranberries and sugar for garnish optional
Instructions
- Follow directions to make fresh cranberry sauce. Allow to fully cool.
- Combine cranberry sauce and vodka in large airtight container. Store in freezer for at least 3 days. Give it a good shake any time you open the freezer.
- Chill 8 martini glasses in the freezer.
- Strain the solids using a fine mesh strainer. To serve, pour the ice cold cranberry vodka into each of the 8 frozen martini glasses. If not immediately serving, store the strained liquid in the freezer until ready to serve, and give it a shake before pouring into glasses.
- If desired, spray fresh cranberries with a bit of water and then roll in sugar. Serve on a skewer over the glass.
This sounds fantastic! I love any fruity flavored drink made of vodka 🙂 Last Thanksgiving I used some leftover cranberry sauce in a mojito (and it was really good!)
This looks delicious, and beautiful. I’m looking for a cranberry martini recipe for New Years Eve. I’m going to give this one a try! Thank you 🙂
Sounds delish! Love, cranberries, vodka, and martini’s! How would suggest a breakdown the recipe if I only wanted to make approximately 4 martinis? BTW I halved the Cranberry Sauce recipe to serve this Thanksgiving and can’t wait to taste it!
Hi Susan, Sorry for the late reply – I took a few days off for the holiday. You would just need to cut the recipe in half. Hope you liked it!
Use the whole sauce recipe for bottle of vodka?
Can I freeze the sauce& if so, how long will it keep? Thank you!
Yep! One whole batch of cranberry sauce and one bottle of vodka. It should last a really long time if kept in the freezer.
The. Cranberry sauce froze when put in freezer. I took out and put in fridge