This is actually a gift for my mother, one of those women who likes anything to do with arts, crafts, food, or drink, BUT has already tried it all! Having wracked my brain for most of April, I decided that my new found passion of infusing and blogging will now include family and gifting! Great fun for me, hopefully for them too, although I'm sure they're rolling their eyes as they are reading this, thinking "Oh dear, save us, not more of her crazy concoctions!".
Unfortunately, I came up with this fabulous idea only days before my mother's birthday, and even the shortest infusions would have struggled to meet these requirements. Her birthday came around, and so I decided to present her with the random ingredients, she hesitantly accepted and thanked me in the most confused manner.
"Infusapalooza is going to wave her magic wand and turn this in to Limoncello!" I announced, and thankfully, to this a wave of realisation appeared on her face, with an air of excitement and curiosity. Being my first "guinea pig", it was fair for her to be slightly worried, but I am pleased to say that this one is another success story, and there is no need for the Apple Pie's to rescue this infusion!
What you'll need to make your own Limoncello:
8 Large Unwaxed Lemons (I recommend spending the extra pennies on these, See my tips below)
70cl Vodka (See tips below for more information on which to buy)500g Sugar
500ml Water
Make sure you also have:
Airtight Bottle
Potato Peeler / Sharp Knife / Grater
(Infusapalooza strongly advises against the use of teeth!)
Fine mesh strainer
(You might need filter papers if you choose to grate the zest)
Kettle & Bowl
(Shame on you, if you actually need to go out and buy these!)
Infusion Method
This one is by far the most difficult out of all my blog posts to date, however, that's just because you actually have to use a knife, a kettle, and be patient enough to wait around for a month while it infuses. As you will notice however, in terms of skill, it's another doddle!
Begin by thoroughly cleaning the lemons, and then dry with kitchen roll.
The next step is to remove the rind, without the pith. This is the only step that requires a slight amount of skill......or just finding a knack that you are comfortable with.
I used a potato peeler and found this worked best for me with the equipment I had available. You might have a sharp knife, grater, or butler that can achieve the same happy results for you. The most important thing is to leave the pith where it is, if some escapes on to your rind, then just use a knife to remove it.
If this gets into your infusion it will leave a nasty bitter taste, which is exactly what you don't want to happen!
I had an attempt with the grater, but for me, I didn't feel like enough rind was coming off, it wasn't easy to avoid the pith, and most importantly to me, I thought it might need a few extra strains at the end. After waiting a month for the infusion, every second counts!
Once you have removed all of the rind from the lemons, add this to the vodka and store in airtight bottles, away from direct sunlight.
You need to leave this to infuse for at least two weeks, I made it to three, giving it the usual daily swirl-shake!
When you cannot wait any longer and the vodka has turned to a lovely bright yellow colour, you can sweeten things up!
Boil the water, add the sugar to this and dissolve, if you need to, you can put it over the hob to dissolve the last few sugar crystals.
Add this sugar syrup to the vodka and rind, and leave again to infuse for another week, continuing with the daily swirl-shakes.
Okay guys, hold in there, we are almost done!
It's party day! Strain the vodka out in to your storing bottles, get some pretty decorative ones for the Limoncello, after waiting this long you deserve it!
If giving as gifts, you can add a few pieces of the rind back in the jars for a more attractive appearance, or just do it as a gift to yourself! I finely sliced the rind and wound it around a cocktail stick to give lovely twisted curls.
Take a sip! Enjoy!
But now go and put it in the fridge, it's much better served icy cold!
If you have used an over-proof spirit, you can keep it in the freezer, that is it's actual intended place of storage, but I don't think you will get away with this on the standard vodkas as permanent storage!
Tips
- If you cannot get hold of unwaxed lemons then your next best option is to give them a really good scrub and hope for the best!
- I used lemons from Waitrose and used the juice to make Lemonade, however, we loved the lemonade so much that we went and bought more lemons just for this reason from that other large green supermarket and unfortunately the flavour just did not match up! Having seen it ruin our lemonade, I would definitely not advise using average-cheap lemons for the actual Limoncello, it would be heart-breaking to wait a month and find out it was bitter and mild tasting!
When selecting your white spirit, the traditional method is to use 100% over-proof vodka, this is because after you have added the simple syrup, you are still left with a high strength of alcohol and so the Limoncello can be kept in the freezer for that cool, crisp taste. Personally, although I like tradition, I am yet to completely adapt to "enjoying" straight alcohol, and so for me, using a regular strength vodka made the final product a far easier, and more enjoyable drink. Play around, only you know your own taste buds!
Drink Suggestions
This is classically served straight, ice-cold, as a short, in Italy, in the sunshine, in very attractive, glamorous clothing.
I've already had a straight short whilst writing this, and luckily, today is pretty bright in North Wales, so I'm getting off the couch to select one of those "summer" dresses from the collection that all still have their labels on, and adding some Prosecco and Elderflower syrup. Mmmm, tastes like summer has arrived!
Don't forget to check out the Lemonade blog post, for using up the lemon flesh, and other great summer drink-spiration!
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