Seemingly, we live on fertile soil. Our lemon trees (3 of them) have over-performed! They are hanging bomb-full of fresh, yellow lemons, giving off a lovely citrus scent. They are really quite tasty. To eat them on the fly right now is a bit heavy. So we turn them into our own Limoncello. Nice right!
We pre-tasted, but don't worry - there's still plenty left for our guests. It's already cold!
Necessities:
The recipe assumes 2.5 litres. (We made a double batch)
10 lemons (unsprayed, of course)
1 litre alcohol 96% (In Italy, just on sale in supermarkets. In NL at Sligro)
600 g granulated sugar
1.5 litres of spring water
A good peeler
3-litre preserving jar
- Wash the lemons under the tap and pat dry.
- Use the peeler to peel the lemons. This is a meticulous job because you need to peel as little of the white part as possible. This is because the white part creates a bitter taste and you don't want that.
- Put the peels in the weck jar and pour in the alcohol. Close the jar tightly, and put it in a dark cool place. Shake it about every other day. This will ensure that the oils from the peel, give the alcohol a nice yellow colour.
My peeler is a very sharp thing.
I once bought it from a stallholder at the market. It works great and peels really thin. But I never bring it off to peel myself too.
- I actually couldn't wait, but I ended up leaving the weck jar alone for 28 days.
- After the waiting period: Heat the spring water. Sprinkle in the sugar, dissolve and cool.
- Strain the peels from the alcohol. And add the cooled sugar water. Now comes the magic. The clear, yellow alcohol turns into a cloudy syrupy drink.
- We fill our bottles. Fantastic this is!
We will leave the bottles of the delicious fresh goodness for a few more weeks, as the taste will only improve. But of course we are curious and want to know what this Homemade Limoncello tastes like. We put one bottle cold, the others are in the wine cellar.
The tasting panel concluded, "Our own Limoncello already tastes delicious in the winter month of December by the fireplace. Can you imagine how great it will be in summer?"
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