Home made Limoncello

I have long been a fan of this delectable Italian liqueur so, since I had a lot of lemons, I decided to make some.
It was very simple and here is the recipe that I used.
1 bottle of vodka
9 lemons preferably organic and definitely not waxed.
350 gm of sugar
150 ml of water.
The first step was to rinse the lemons to ensure there was no dust or dirt on them. The recipe said to grate the zest off of the lemons but I found that too much of the bitter pith was coming off too.



I reverted to peeling the zest off very thinly with a vegetable peeler. The water and sugar went into a saucepan and I dissolved the sugar over a gentle heat. (Stir and watch this well or it will either boil over or catch).
Once the sugar was dissolved, I removed it from the heat and allowed it to cool. Now I needed to sterilise a large jar with a tight fitting lid and I have always found the easiest way to do this, is to put a small amount of water in the jar and microwave for 1 minute.
Be careful removing the jar from the microwave as it is vey hot. Tip out the water and you are ready to go.



I added the lemon zest to the sterilised jar and poured in the vodka. Once the sugar syrup was cool, added that to the jar too. Gave it a good stir and put the lid on and placed the jar in a cool dark place, where it will need to stay for 30 days.
Twice a week I will need to take it out and place the jar on a flat surface and spin gently several times so that the contents are mixed.
In a months time I am to strain the contents of the jar through muslin or a fine sieve to get rid of the zest. I will then be able to, hopefully, bottle my lovely Limoncello. I did sneak a taste and it was very good already!
And so as to not waste all the lemons that I only used the zest from, I juiced them and made lemon ice locks. When frozen I will transfer them to a Tupperware container and they will be great for drinks or for when lemons are scarce.



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