My parents traveled far and wide to spend Father’s day with me this year, and they packed
a few bottles of sunshine to share. My father proceeded to get the entire
family gleefully liquored up on Moonshine Limoncello, his newest obsession. The
mania spread like wild fire and by day three a plethora of aunts and cousins were
spending hours in the kitchen with him making their own jars of liquid sun. Tables
were piled high with enormous bags of lemons, sugar, a pallet of mason jars,
and numerous bottles of vodka.
Now
that’s a family get together.
(Recipe
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)
Total
time: 5 days
Prep
time: 30 minutes with 10 minutes cooking
Makes
one bottle
Ingredients:
15 lemons,
zested (avoiding the white pith)
1
bottle (750ml) of Everclear
(190 proof grain alcohol)
2 ½ cups
water
2
cups organic white cane sugar (resist the urge to use sugar in the raw as it is brown and will change the clarity)
Day
One:
Using
a citrus zester (or vegetable peeler), zest only the yellow part of the peel
(avoid the white pith at all costs & save the juice for lemonade).
Place the lemon zest in a large sealable pitcher. Pour the Everclear
over the zest and seal. Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 4
days. It can sit for up to 60 days if desired.
Day
Four:
In a
large sauce pan over medium heat, melt the sugar and water together until the
sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. Add the simple syrup to the
lemon zest and Everclear mixture, stir to combine. Cover and let stand at room
temperature over night.
Day
Five:
Strain
the limoncello through a fine mesh strainer. Pour in to "pretty" sealable bottles and store them in the freezer (for the chill factor). Serve in chilled apéritif glasses
or over ice with a splash of pure cranberry juice for a perfect summer
cocktail.
Is it bad that I got excited when I read moonshine? LOL!
ReplyDeleteLooks like your Father's Day was fabulous. :)
This is quickly going to become a family tradition. Oh, wait it already is ;)
ReplyDeleteWho needs garage meatballs when we have moonshine limoncello!
DeleteWow, must taste great! Love the colour!
ReplyDelete...and even better if you stash your Limoncello in the freezer; especially on a hot summer evening!
ReplyDeleteVery good point! The colder, the better!
DeleteI remember having Limoncello on our honeymoon in Italy, when biking through Umbria. It was, in a word, amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this one! (And for your comment and kind words today ... this was a tough one.)
Wow, I bet you all had a fabulous time, and I want some of this Limoncello. Do you only use the zest, no lemon juice? I can read, just making sure, LOL. Too cool.
ReplyDeleteOnly the zest, no juice... you can save that for lemonade... :)
DeleteIf ever I could drink (which I can't because I itch when I do), this would probably be the tipple for me. That must have been some family get together!
ReplyDeleteFirst I have to give props to a couple great sources. This guy has been online for long enough to have archived multiple "Family recipes" http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs/flavors.htm#Limoncello ...and this site is exactly as described http://limoncelloquest.com/
ReplyDeleteYou can read Limoncello's history and details on Wikipedia, but the recipe couldn't be simpler, lemon zest, alcohol, and simple syrup. Just like your mother's spaghetti sauce ...just some tomato sauce and spices, right? Hah! Limoncello is similarly made slightly different by every Italian family.
For this batch we used 100 proof Vodka (50% alcohol) Most hard liquor is 40% (80 proof), so using 100 proof Vodka allows adding the necessary water+sugar for sweetening and having your result be just over 30% alcohol. To avoid disaster try this tip: After the zest has rendered and been strained, set some un-sweetened filtered concentrate aside. If you try the main batch and it is too sweet, this will allow you to add that un-sweetened concentrate, adjusting it to your preference. Like Mamma's marinara ...too much basil? add some more tomatoes.
After reading the links above you may be wondering about letting it sit for months to extract and even more months to age ...engh. If you are in a hurry like us, use more lemons. They may not fully extract but all you need is the right concentration of lemon oils, and more zest will deliver that faster. However, I must admit my best batch was aged the longest. Like wine, Limoncello can develop some complexities with varied handling. One recipe calls for adding several lemon leaves as the secret ingredient. Me? Well my lemons overlooked the Meat section of the Costco and not the Mediterranean, and Costco was fresh out of lemon leaves.
While super, straight from the freezer, Limoncello makes a great mixed drink. Add some cranberry juice, or Sun Tea over ice. More Googling! You will feel a lot less guilty making it into mixed drinks because you did not pay the $35 a bottle commonly seen at retail for imported Limoncello! Just in time for Summer ~ Enjoy
PoPz
You are so informative!
DeleteThe word "everclear" makes me shudder, but what an amazing-looking limoncello. I've only seen it made from vodka before!
ReplyDeleteTechnically speaking Everclear may produce the best result in terms of final product taste. Being only about 1.5% water (as opposed to 50% water for 100 proof Vodka) makes Everclear toxic to drink straight and as explosively flammable as gasoline. However, with the right safety precautions, Everclear is so specifically solvent that it extracts only the oils from the lemon peel. The almost total absence of water affects what ends up in the resulting extract. Gallon for gallon Everclear is also cheaper. But I agree with you, the risks using Everclear outweigh the benefits, and that is why we used a nice quality 100 proof Vodka ...which only has the regular dangers of flammability, and loss of motor skills. The mason jars were for convenience and humor, and were empty when originally purchased ...seriously. Real "Moonshine" is unregulated in terms of alcohol % and purity, making recipe sharing difficult, the final product unsafe, oh and illegal ...still funny, great pic!
DeleteWow - I never would have thought of this, but it sounds incredible! Will have to try making some for a party or something... sounds like it would be perfect in the hot weather!
ReplyDeleteI made limoncello a few days back and gave it to my book club as Christmas gifts...they were thrilled. I may have to do that again this year :)
ReplyDelete"a few years back" not days...LOL
ReplyDeleteThis really does make a great gift!
DeleteSomething new for me but I do have high liking for anything with lemons.
ReplyDeleteYou would think adding some lemon juice to your Limoncello would be a good idea, but the mind-blowing smoothness of this drink comes from the lack of lemon's sourness (the juice) and the pure extract of only what you know as the great smell of lemons. Zesting lemons makes your whole kitchen smell great, and if you spill any before the sugar has been added (next week) it's also a great *cleaner* LOL ...don't use on any painted surfaces. The butcher block loved the pure lemon oil extract as did my sister's sunglasses, which she said got especially clean after wiping off some spilled un-sweetened Limoncello
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Bookmarked this recipe to try out this summer.
ReplyDeleteNow this is the way to get a party started!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds pretty amazing, and I imagine it is knock your socks off with that everclear included ;)! That said, I would love a large drink made with it :)!
ReplyDeleteGlad to know that you had a wonderful family time last Father's Day!
ReplyDeleteMoonshine Limoncello is something I haven't tried...but it sure sounds and looks so good!
Very nice! Love those frosted jars.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous, refreshing summer drink!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds WAY more fun than when my family gets together!!
ReplyDeleteI love to have some of that-)) Summer drink looks very refreshing-))) You have a good day!
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed some lemoncello cocktails last night with your Mom and Dad. I'm hooked!
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed lemoncello cocktails with your Mom and Dad last night! I'm totally hooked!
ReplyDeleteI don't drink but I'd make an exception for this. Please invite me next time your folks visit.
ReplyDeleteI love every. single. thing. about this.
ReplyDelete