Homemade Backyard Zinfandel Grape Sauce
Zinfandel Grape Sauce
Once a year I love making a peach cobbler while peaches are in season.
And of course we need a scoop of @nadamoo gluten-free and vegan Vanilla…AHHH ice cream.
Last year I had two clusters of Zinfandel grapes on the vines and I made it into a Zinfandel grape sauce. And poured that over the cobbler and ice cream. It was insanely good.
This year our grapevine went crazy and we have so many clusters of grapes. These that are ripening and tons of new growth on the ends.
So I wanted to make the Zinfandel grape sauce again for the summer peach cobbler as well as freeze the grape juice from this first batch into cubes.
Ideally, one day we’ll make our own wine but we need lots more grapes for that.
We are trying to create cuttings, though. And I used the grape leaves to make a chimichurri sauce!
First I cut the grapes that were mostly ripened and placed them in a bowl full of water for about two hours. Little bugs can get inside the grapes so I wanted to make sure they were washed really well.
I do use Organocide pest and fungus control to treat the grapes/vine but some get deep into those clusters.
Then I pulled off the dark grapes and discarded the green ones because they are bitter. And the grapes go into a large saucepan because we are going to cook them for about 50 minutes over medium heat.
This year I also added in some seedless organic red grapes from the grocery store this year. Then a couple squeezes of lemon juice.
Cook on the stove top stirring occasionally until all (or most) of the grapes bust open.
Then strain the grapes in a mesh colander with a wooden spoon until the most of the juice is recovered and the skins and seeds can be discarded.
I got about 2 cups of juice from the grapes and froze all but 1/2 cup.
For the zinfandel grape sauce, I used 1/2 cup of the grape juice, 1 tsp honey and 1 tsp cornstarch to make this beautiful bright sauce.
Just cook until it bubbles and thickens. SO fantastic!
