Limoncello (or) My Trip to Italy

In Italy, a limoncello is served as a digestive in a very small glass, straight up. It is ultra strong (think Everclear/Deisel/180 proof) and ultra sweet (imagine 6-8 cups sugar syrup per 750 ml). Sometimes it is served in the variation of Creme Limoncello (Limoncello with Cream). I prefer not too sweet drinks so I have cut the sugar down considerably, and used regular vodka. Ever since a bad night with Jello shots when I was 19, Everclear scares the Bejesus out of me. Everclear or not, here is Limoncello a la Mary Jean.

Ingredients
10 lemons (cream of the crop)
1 liter of 80 proof vodka
3 1/2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Tools
2-3 liter infusion jar
vegetable peeler and paring knife or microplane zester
med-large pot
funnel
decorative, food grade bottles to serve Limoncello

Limoncello! I must admit, if this recipe works, I will be amazed. It was SO easy I hardly believe that it could work. I've wanted to make Limoncello for years. I always hesitated because I thought it would be a pain. I was SOOOO wrong! You should make Limoncello now!
For the geeks like me, a Wiki link about the history and cultural significance of Limoncello in Italy.

You need good lemons for this. If you didn't read my first post about quality ingredients, you should. Because my Meyer lemon tree isn't producing yet, I was stuck with grocery store lemons. But they are California lemons, so I feel confident about them.

The first thing I did was wash the lemons. If you don't go organic, most fruit will be covered in a vegetable wax. This wax will hinder a good, complete infusion. Get your water good and warm, soak your lemons for about 5-8 minutes and then scrub them with a soft brush. I made sure to dry the lemons well.

Then comes the peeling/zesting of the lemons. Regarding preparing the infusion, there was some contention about peeling vs. zesting in the forums, so I decided to do both.

My mother (ironically, the most temperate of us all) volunteered to peel lemons. Thanks mom! She's always up for culinary adventure! Notice the spots of white on the lemon peels (zest)? That's called pith. After we finished peeling we had to go through an scrape that off with a paring knife. Make sure you don't have any pith in your Limoncello, it's bitter and will impart that flavor into your infusion.

I chose to use my brand new fabulous microplane zester. I have been dying to use it on something other than Parmesan since I bought it. In fact, I will admit, I kind of wanted to make Limoncello because it would give me an excuse to zest a pile of lemons with my cool new zesting toy. I am SUCH a kitchen freak.

Surprise, surprise! The zester wins. Look at that luscious pile of pith-free zest, and I didn't even have to work for it. This zester is a revelation compared to those horrid, pokey, scrape-my-knuckles zesters. My god, you should really get one of these.

Anyway, now that the microplane commercial is over, we can pour the 1 liter of vodka in the infusion jar and pitch in our lemon peels. Felix already wants some.

Down kitty! You have to wait at least 5 weeks!

Next, I stretched 2 layers of saran wrap over the mouth of the jar and put it in a paper bag. If you have some rubber bands or a hair band, wrap them tightly around the neck of the jar to hold the saran wrap.

It was then relegated to the bottom of my pantry... but not before I kissed it goodnight.

See the sticky note with the date written on it pasted to the side of the bag? At 3 weeks I will add the simple syrup. Note to the thinkers out there: I know what you're thinking! Letting it set longer will not make it better. When you let it set longer you run the risk of pickling your lemons. Unless you want vodka pickled lemons, I wouldn't infuse the vodka for any longer than 8-9 weeks. It may be a good idea to agitate the mixture every few days or so to loosen the oils. I think I'll do that.

6 WEEKS LATER.....

Here's the update folks. At 6 weeks we're supposed to add the Simple Sugar. Because I am a horrible procrastinator, I didn't add the sweetener until 7 weeks and because I'm a horrible blogger, I forgot to take pictures.

Arg.

Here's the quick and dirty. It's actually very simple. HA! Pun intended. Get it? Simple sugar? Ok, sorry, bad joke.

Put your water (3.5 cups) in a pot and warm it till you see small bubbles. Don't let it boil.

Then add your sugar (2 cups) to the water. Stir continually until the sugars dissolve completely. COMPLETELY! Remove the syrup from the heat and allow it to cool completely.

Then add it to your Limoncello. That's it! Wrap the limoncello back up in the bag and hide it away for another week or two.

Ok, now I have a biggie confession. I didn't take pictures of the straining. I broke into the limoncello in an impromptu celebration. I swear I had a good excuse!!

But here are some other pics/explanations to give you an idea of the process. I will update the post with better pics when I do this again. Yes I will be making limoncello again. It is AWESOME!

After the limoncello has aged 2 more weeks, after the addition of the sugar syrup, pour the limoncello into a big bowl. Then take out another big bowl, a strainer and some coffee filters.

First pour the limoncello through a regular strainer. This will remove the big bits. Discard them. Then run the limoncello through coffee filters that are placed in your strainers over your bowls. This will remove the bit-lets. You can have two of the strainers going at once if you need to. I did. I goes quicker with two. The strainer situation looks something like this:

While straining the limoncello, you will want to check and change the coffee filter occasionally. It can get clogged with bits of zest and slow down the straining process.

After the limoncello has been strained, you can pour it in bottles to store in the freezer, like so:

After your Limoncello is FREEZING cold (being in the freezer overnight should be perfect) you are ready for a refreshing, springy, lemony, cocktail. Yum. They are wonderful. If you like lemon drop martinis, margaritas, or anything citrus-y you are gonna love this stuff.

I want to keep it simple and allow the Limoncello to shine with this recipe.

Spring Fling
Ingredients 1 navel orange 2-3 dashes of Lemon juice Limoncello (cold!) Tools 1 kitchen knife Cocktail glass (small) Muscles like She-Ra (for juicing the orange)

First, cut your navel orange and squeeze the juice into your ice filled glass. She-Ra muscles aren't really necessary. I just like to pretend I'm She-Ra when I'm doing manual labor type stuff, and yes, in my world, juicing an orange counts as laborious.

It's okay if chunky bits of the orange fall in the glass. They make it better and give you vitamins!
Then add in your dashes of lemon juice. I like the pre-squeezed lemon juice for this because the super tartness of it contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the orange juice and the limoncello. But if you want to use fresh, be my guest.

Stir your cocktail, find a bright, springy spot, and sip your afternoon away with your friends, a good book, your dog or your kitty.

(This is me on the porch, lovin' my cocktail.)

How do I rate this recipe? Awesome.

Will I make it again? I've already started a new batch.

What would I change?

It is a bit sweet, even before mixing it in a drink. Next time I might lower the syrup content to 1.5 cups of sugar. If you are sensitive to sugar/sweetness you might consider doing the same.

Because of the high amount of water, the lemony flavor and alcohol is diluted quite a bit. Mixing it in a drink dilutes it even more. I will consider either lowering the water, upping the alcohol proof, or doing both. If you want a stronger more concentrated beverage, use more lemons and higher proof liquor (Everclear would be good). Or you could use more lemons and still use 80 proof vodka.

I will also consider throwing in a lengthwise split vanilla bean, just for fun. I think it will add a depth of flavor to this infusion that will be interesting.

This recipe still needs perfecting... but it is the most lovely, cleanest, most spingy-est beverage I have yet to enjoy.

If you are making it, take my suggestions and make it to your taste. But please, do make it.

If you do, let me know how it goes!

Stuff I've learned since I started...

#1: Use the highest quality (nice way of saying the most expensive) ingredients you can afford.

If you have a Whole Foods Market or something similar, it's a good idea to start there for the main ingredients. But use your common sense! If you're making an orange pound cake, buy the best (most flavorful and aromatic) oranges you can find. You can probably skimp on things like sugar and baking powder. No need for organic baking powder, for goodness sake.

#2: Always use the BEST vanilla you can afford. I'm reaffirming the above tip.

Most all baked goods call for vanilla. For this reason it will always be in your arsenal and all bakers have a favorite vanilla product. Some bakers even make their own. Getting the best vanilla you can find and afford will make a great difference in your final product. A tip to choose between a few extracts is to look on the ingredients list. Whichever extract has the least amount of alcohol is probably the best vanilla. If you can manage vanilla beans-- those are wonderful. But they are pricey! I only use them for super special occasions and add one in to compliment the vanilla extract. I usually use Watkins vanilla extract, but I live in a small town and that's the best product available to me. Do an internet search and you'll find Mexican vanilla, Tahitian vanilla, Madagascar vanilla, cold pressed vanilla, powdered vanilla, vanilla paste, the list goes on. All have different properties, if you want to go vanilla wild-- experiment. I would love to hear your results.



#3: Always use King Author flour, if you can get it. Again, reaffirming #1, see how important it is?

It is fabulous, glorious and otherwise magical. I think they use crushed faeries in each bag. I have no idea how it makes my cakes and brownies rise so high! Maybe it has something to do with the higher amount of protein. I don't care to much for the science of it, maybe yall can enlighten me. Either way, know that King Author is the only way to go, for all your baking needs. This is what a bag of King Author's All Purpose flour looks like.

#4: Get at least 1 good chef's knife.

You'll need it for cutting stuff like chocolate, fruits, nuts and the tips of your fingers. Actually, you should already have one. If you don't, shame on you!

#5: Start stocking your pantry.

This way, when you want to bake some cookies you don't have to go to the store. Shopping makes baking a chore; like making dinner. When you grocery shop, pick up an extra bottle of vanilla, some ginger, flour, chocolate chips, nuts or some interesting extract. I usually replace the things I used up last, add to what I use the most often and pick up something new to play with. This can be a gorgeous fresh fruit, a bag of nuts, or a bag of dark chocolate. By replacing nonperishables when you don't need them, they'll be there waiting for you when you do. By picking up new interesting things as they strike your fancy instead of going to the store and looking for them, you bypass the pressure of "finding something to work with."

#6: Always take out your butter and preheat your oven first.

For most recipes you have to have room temperature butter for creaming. Before you start preparing the rest of your ingredients (see #7), get your butter out and cut it into cubes so it will warm up. You can put it on top of your oven that you will preheat. Nothing sucks more than getting ready to go and having cold butter and a cold oven. Don't cut corners and microwave your butter. It never works. If you forget to do all of the above, you will have to wait on the butter to warm, and the oven to heat.

If you forget, I'm telling Chef Ramsey.


#7: Measure out ingredients before you start.

You know when you watch the Food Network and they have little glass bowls of ingredients already measured? I know it seems silly and like it would make a huge mess. It does create more dishes, but it is certainly not silly. It ultimately makes the whole process much quicker. It keeps you from over beating your batter when your measuring, uh, searching for ingredients. It also keeps your kitchen orderly and the baking process is more organized. Get thee to the Dollar Store and buy small bowls! Pretend your the Frugal Gourmet (does anyone remember him?) and you're on your own cooking show!



#8: Read the entire recipe before opening your pantry, turning on your oven, or cracking an egg.

If you are caramelizing sugar for Christmas candy and find yourself throwing cereal on the floor of your pantry searching for food coloring, you're in trouble. If you had read the recipe before the sugar became the most dangerous food substance known to man, you would know that you needed to add food coloring at the hard crack stage, right before you put the sugar in the ice bath, and you would have had it ready. You wouldn't be in danger of harming yourself or your poodle. Do your family a favor. So you aren't screaming through the house for assistant ingredient finders and bowl stirrers, read your recipe through, completely, a few times before you start the process. You can then organize your workspace accordingly.

#9: SHIFT your flour before using it in your recipe.

Exactly as it sounds, folks. I do this because the flour settles in the bag and becomes packed. Ok, truthfully, I do this because the King Author flour cookbook told me to and I found out it makes a huge difference. The brilliant minds at King Author flour found out that if you measure the flour straight into your mixer, you're adding too much. We're supposed to sift it and then measure the prescribed amount. You will find that it ends up being less flour than you thought. You don't want a dry, floury cake, do you? No. I know it's an extra step-- do it, trust me on this. The next post will be more detailed instructions on this step.

#10: When creaming butter and sugar, add the sugar slowly, one tablespoon at a time.

Cream the butter on it's own until its whipped, and then stream in the sugar. Allow each tablespoon to be mixed in before adding the next one. The reason for this step is to create air bubbles in the batter. You are creating the base of your project in this step. We want it fluffy, so take your time! At the end of the process, your butter and sugar should be pale yellow, fluffy, puffy and you should want to eat it. Oh look! Here's a video:



She doesn't cube her butter OR go as slow as I'd like... but it gives you a good idea of the process. Note the bowl scraping, that's important too.