Lemon Syrup

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"

This mega famous quote totally fits my recipe for this Lemonade ! 

In addition, there's my own twist on this quote : 

“When life gives you lemons, make byTiny's Limoncello”

By the way, a good reason to make this lemon lemonade could be a direct result of that limocello ! 

After all, in that recipe you only need the lemon peels, leaving you with a pack of “bare” lemons, full of delicious juice!!!

Start by washing the lemons in warm to hot water; by soaking them even briefly in hot water, you can extract more juice afterwards! Or at least use lemons at room temperature.

First remove the peel from the 3 untreated lemons, using a peeler. 

Be careful not to cut the white part of the lemon as it tastes very bitter and should be avoided at all times!

Fill a pan with 400 ml of water and add the lemon peels.

Note: in case you would like to give a rather spicy flavor to this lemon syrup, now is the time to add some washed and very thinly sliced ginger to the lemon water. Or instead of ginger, you could choose to add the leaves of a few sprigs of mint.... 

In any case, stir everything well before bringing to a boil.

Then remove the pan from the heat and let it cool completely to room temperature.

In case you had added extra slices of ginger or mint leaves, you can even keep the mixture overnight in the refrigerator and result in an even more intense flavor!

Put all the sugar in another pot and add 400ml of water. 

Stir and let boil until all sugar is completely dissolved. 

On a lower heat but still simmering, now let the sugar water thicken sufficiently. It is best to stir once in a while and meanwhile check the thickness. 

After all, we are making a 'syrup', so we should obtain sufficient consistency.

By the way, you can easily check this by putting some of the boiled sugar mixture on a cold spoon and see if it has become syrupy...

Once sufficiently 'syrupy', remove the pan from the heat and let it all cool well.

Squeeze the lemons and strain the obtained lemon juice.

Also strain the (cooled!) water with lemon peels and pour into a large pot, along with the just squeezed and strained lemon juice.  

Add the cooled syrup to the pot too and also stir in the citric acid -until completely dissolved!- in the mixture!

Note: the citric acid will not only provide a nice acidity flavourwise but will also guarantee a longer shelf life! !

Finally, wash the lemongrass and cut off the ends. 

To fully bring out its flavor, beat the lemongrass stems so that the fibers can nicely break open and release their distinctive flavor.

In each clean sterilized bottle or other container then put a crushed lemon stem before pouring in the syrup. 

Seal the bottles very tightly and preferably store them in a cool, dark place. Once opened, you can store your lemon syrup for another month or so in your refrigerator.

Usage:

Take a nice, big jug and fill it for about 20% with your lemon syrup. 

Fill for the rest with (preferably sparkling!) water, lots of icecubes and quite some lemon slices. 

If you want your drink to taste extra fresh, you can also add some sprigs of mint to the pitcher.

What you also could do, is fill an ice cube mold with water and put a mint leaf on each cube. Once frozen, all you have to do is add one or more of those mint ice cubes into your glass of lemonade to give it that nice extra mint flavor.

Or you could of course also put the lemon srup itself in an ice cube mold and then add these to your glass of water or other  anytime you feel like an extra lemon-flavour . . .

What else can you use this lemon syrup for?

- to sprinkle on a cake

- to form a base for (or an addition to) a cocktail

- to stir through your yogurt

- to add a delicious lemon flavor to your whipped cream or other topping

- to mix into so many other recipes