Confession: I’ve held out on you guys for a while now. I’m not really sure why it’s taken me so long to post this recipe, I’ve been making my own Grand Marnier for years and its really fabulous! I learned how to make this from my friends Mary and Dori – they’ve been doing this for years and are certainly pros at it!
Grand Marnier is an orange flavored liquor that is typically mixed into margaritas and other tasty drinks. I would consider it a staple for any home bar. It tends to be pretty expensive, so this homemade version is significantly cheaper and tastes better. It’s really simple to make, but it takes a little bit of waiting. So I’d recommend you get yourself some oranges and make it this weekend, then you can enjoy it all summer long! It also makes really great gifts.
I’ve included some step by step photo’s on the process as well as the recipe at the bottom of the post.
For the first part you’ll start with these ingredients:
- 8-10 oranges – you’ll want unsprayed or organic oranges, since we will be using the peels
- 1 liter bottle of Brandy – honestly I don’t think the brand matters much here
- A large glass jar – You will want something with a wide opening to get the orange peels in and out. I found my jar at Sprouts, but you could also use a giant Costco sized pickle jar (washed out really really well).
Rinse and dry all of the oranges, then gently remove the surface layer of the peel with a vegetable peeler.
You want to be really careful not to get any of the white pith below the orange part. It’s really bitter and wont add a very nice flavor to your Grand Marnier.
It will probably take a few tries before you get it down and it’s a little time consuming at first. If you do get some of the white pith, you can gently scrape the peel with a pairing knife to remove it.
Once you have peeled all of the oranges, put them into your glass jar.
Pour in the entire bottle of brandy and put the lid on the jar. Store the jar in a cool, dry place for 30 days. I like to check on it once every few days and give the jar a little swirl to mix up the contents. Sometimes when I’m making it I feel like I should be on Moonshiners
***wait 4 weeks***
After brandy mixture has been stored for 4 weeks, Stir together 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, until sugar is completely dissolved. Let sugar mixture (simple syrup) cool completely.
Meanwhile, Pour the brandy/orange peel mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
Throw away all of the orange peels from the jar. Add the cooled simple syrup to the brandy mixture.
Line the strainer with a coffee filter and pour the Grand Marnier through the filter. Once all of the mixture has filtered through replace with a new filter and strain again. Repeat this process 2-4 more times until Grand Marnier is clear.
Transfer the Grand Marnier to bottles and refrigerate before serving. Store in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 1 year.
There you have it! Waiting the 4 weeks is the hardest part – I typically set a reminder in my phone so I don’t forget about it
Ingredients:
- 6-8 Oranges, unsprayed or organic
- 1 Liter Brandy
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups sugar
Directions:
Peel oranges into long strips using a vegetable peeler, taking only the rind and none of the white pith. If some of the white pith is on the peels, use a paring knife to trim it away and discard. Place Orange peels into a 2 quart glass jar, pour in brandy and stir gently. Cover jar and store in a cool dry place for 4 weeks, stirring once a week.
After brandy mixture has been stored for 4 weeks, Stir together water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, until sugar is completely dissolved. Let sugar mixture cool completely.
In a fine mesh sieve strain orange peels out of the brandy mixture and discard peels. Stir in sugar syrup into the brandy. Line the strainer with a coffee filter and pour the Grand Marnier through the filter. Once all of the mixture has filtered through replace with a new filter and strain again. Repeat this process 2-4 more times until Grand Marnier is clear.
Transfer the Grand Marnier to bottles and refrigerate before serving. Store in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 1 year.
In addition to prep/active time please allow 4 weeks for mixture to process
Looks yummy. Can’t wait to try someday, when I have a house back to myself! lol.
Eric loves Grand Marnier, I’ll have to make this for him!
I had a bad experience with Grand Marnier after a very long day and night of drinking in Grand Cayman and cannot stomach the thought of it since (and that was years ago!). However, this really intrigues me, and I’m sure it’s better than the real version. I may have to try this….
Love! How much does this make? If I want to make about 6 bottles for xmas gifts, do I multiply this recipe by 6?? thanks.. hotmessmom.com@gmail.com
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Hi HMM – Listed in recipe above, I state that it makes about 7 cups of Grand Marnier. That translates to about 2 and a half 750 ml bottles. Just so you have a point of reference, 750 ml bottles are the size of most standard hard alcohol or wine bottles, so pretty big.
You will need to figure out how many oz or ml the bottles you will be using to give as gifts can hold, then you can determine if you need to make a double (or triple) batch. You could probably go with a smaller bottle, like 375 ml since that is a typical size of a Grand Marnier bottles (and other liqueurs too).
Hope this helps – Happy Grand Marnier making