Homemade Creme de Cacao (Jagendorf) Recipe

Miscellaneous Untried Recipes

This is from a collection of recipes from books I own, but which I haven't myself tried yet. However, you can have faith that at least the authors themselves have tried them, so they're not deadly or anything.

From Folk Wines, Cordials & Brandies, by M.A. Jagendorf:

1. Buy a pound of whole cocoa beans,* put them in a flat pan, and roast them in the oven. Then grind them in a coffee grinder. If you have no coffee grinder, pound them with any kind of wooden mallet.
2. Put them into a half-gallon or gallon jar and pour in 1 or 1 1/2 quarts of brandy or vodka. Add 1/2 ounce vanilla beans.
3. Close and let stand for a week in a dark place, then strain.
4. Now boil a pound or two of sugar in half a pint of water for half an hour. When cool, add, according to your taste, to the liqueur.
5. When cool, bottle it.

It is best not to drink it for at least three months.

*You can buy cocoa beans at the Cocoa Exchange in New York. A much simpler way is to buy cocoa extract. Use an amount to suit your particular taste.