As you may know, lemon is one of my favorite flavors. I even add lemon juice to most of my smoothies. So, this past December, I tried this recipe I found on Pinterest:
It looks so good! And I loved that the syrup could be made and kept in jars in the fridge. That takes up way less space than a gallon container. I didn't take any pictures of the final syrup in its jars, but it was very cute. I did, however, take pictures of how I juice lemons without a citrus-juicer-thingy. (I just purchased one this week at Salvation Army and I am so excited to make gallons and gallons of lemonade with it!)
I use:
Lemons!
knife and cutting board
a fork with sturdy tines
2 bowls
a small wire strainer
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| First, gather your supplies. If you're zesting any lemons, first thoroughly wash the outside of the lemon. |
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| I took no pictures of the zesting process, but this is what the lemon looked like afterwards. I probably could have gotten more off of it, but I didn't. |
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| Gently roll the lemon under your hand to help the juices get flowing. |
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| Cut the lemon in half like this. (It's really hard to take a picture with my left hand.) |
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| Stab the lemon with the fork like this. |
Then, holding it (pointed down-ish) over a bowl, twist the lemon and the fork in opposite directions. Lots of juice should come out. Continue doing this until it stops being productive. The lemon half has probably folded in on itself by now (see next picture), so use the fork like a windshield wiper inside to get some more stuff out. Now run the side of the fork down the open side of the lemon to get the juice out of the pulpy, ragged edge. (I couldn't take pictures of this step because I only have two hands. Sorry about that.)
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| A juiced half and the next half. |
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| This is what half a lemon produced (it wasn't a very juicy one). Notice how it is full of pulp and seeds. Gross, that's not what you want! |
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| Pour the juice into another bowl through a strainer. I'd normally be holding the strainer up, but I was taking a picture. |
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| Continue squeezing lemons into one bowl, and then straining them into another whenever you feel like it. |
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| The strainer will get clogged up with pulp and seeds, so I squish it with my clean fingers until I get all the juice out, then dump the pulp in the trash (or compost) and rinse the strainer out. You'll have to do this several times if you're using multiple lemons. |
Once I had the juice, I followed the instructions on the website. Here's the final product cooling in the pot:
I promise it tasted better than it looks! After it was cool, I transferred it to some cute Mason jars to keep in my fridge. We really loved this lemonade, and it was great mixed with strawberry puree (as suggested on the website). I would probably leave out the zest next time, as I didn't think it added anything to the flavor - and I'm rather anti-floaties. (Edit - I had no idea what I was saying. Keep the zest in there - it adds tons to the flavor. And even little boys who turn up their noses at all things with floaties will love this lemonade. I promise.)
Anyway, I will definitely be making this again. I'm picky about my lemonade being the right combination of sour and sweet - and this recipe got perfect marks in my book! In fact, one of my 101 Things in 2013 is to make this syrup and then freeze it, so I can use it in the summer.
I did have a little bit of lemon juice leftover, so come back next Thursday to see what I did with that.
Love and Sugar,
Leah Joy
P.S. Do you have a favorite lemonade recipe? (Or even powder brand - I do love Kool-Aid lemonade!)
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