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Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

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  • Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

    I just made my first batch of this traditional Italian liqueur and it is just fabulous for sipping with coffee--and its easy to make. This easily beats the best commercial limoncello Ive tried. The recipe made 1200 ml.

    500 ml of Polish Rectified Spirit (95% ethyl alcohol--from Dan Murphy)
    6 of the best, freshest lemons you can locate (I added one lime cause I like limes!)
    500 ml of water
    400 grams of sugar

    Grate only the most outside yellow rind from the lemon. (I used one of those microplane graters. The finer the peel the quicker the extraction! The smallest amount of white pith from beneath the yellow rind will turn the drink bitter.)
    Add the peel to the alcohol, and put in a sealed glass bottle in a dark place.
    Agitate daily for 4 days and watch the alcohol turn yellow.
    Add the sugar to the water and bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to ensure the sugar is dissolved *before* the mixture boils.
    Put on a lid, and simmer gently for 5 minutes or so.
    Cool.
    Strain the alcohol mix through muslin or nylon curtain scrim and squeeze out all the alcohol from the rind. Discard the rind, which is now pale.
    Mix the alcohol into the cooled sugar syrup. The mixture turns a bright beautiful cloudy yellow.
    Bottle.
    Keep a bottle in the freezer and serve into frozen small glasses!
    Warning--this stuff is sweet, delicious, and 40% alcohol potent!

    Greg
    (hic :-[)

  • #2
    Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

    Originally posted by 66534446764E534C404D45210 link=1273376522/0#0 date=1273376522
    I just made my first batch of this traditional Italian liqueur and it is just fabulous for sipping with coffee--and its easy to make. This easily beats the best commercial limoncello Ive tried. The recipe made 1200 ml.

    500 ml of Polish Rectified Spirit (95% ethyl alcohol--from Dan Murphy)
    6 of the best, freshest lemons you can locate (I added one lime cause I like limes!)
    500 ml of water
    400 grams of sugar

    Grate only the most outside yellow rind from the lemon. (I used one of those microplane graters. The finer the peel the quicker the extraction! The smallest amount of white pith from beneath the yellow rind will turn the drink bitter.)
    Add the peel to the alcohol, and put in a sealed glass bottle in a dark place.
    Agitate daily for 4 days and watch the alcohol turn yellow.
    Add the sugar to the water and bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to ensure the sugar is dissolved *before* the mixture boils.
    Put on a lid, and simmer gently for 5 minutes or so.
    Cool.
    Strain the alcohol mix through muslin or nylon curtain scrim and squeeze out all the alcohol from the rind. Discard the rind, which is now pale.
    Mix the alcohol into the cooled sugar syrup. The mixture turns a bright beautiful cloudy yellow.
    Bottle.
    Keep a bottle in the freezer and serve into frozen small glasses!
    Warning--this stuff is sweet, delicious, and 40% alcohol potent!

    Greg
    (hic :-[)
    My rels make this by the bucket....  BAD rels  ;D  Too bloody nice and easy to drink.

    PS. They also use other fruit, but we all tend to like the lemon the best...  Good quality Lisbone lemons are good...  Some of the small common ones are not as good with the flavour.

    PPS.  Some flowers can also be used....  This sort of thing can be very interesting.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

      Thanks Greg .....

      We fell in love with Limoncello whilst travelling through Italy. It was always good if you were out at a restaurant and it wasnt on the menu, at the end of the meal you order a coffee and ask for a Limoncello, 9/10 times if it wasnt on the menu and you asked for it they gave it to you for free  

      Recently we purchased a bottle locally and it lasted one night  

      1200ml sounds like just the right volume!

      Cheers

      Stinky.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

        Stinky...if you know who to ask, you can get the same right here in Australia...

        Greg, I thought it was 4 weeks not 4 days!! The recipe I have scribbled down for me on a piece of paper says to leave it for as long as you can before adding the sugar syrup...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

          Originally posted by 2A3A36362D38063E3835590 link=1273376522/3#3 date=1273407864
          Greg, I thought it was 4 weeks not 4 days!! The recipe I have scribbled down for me on a piece of paper says to leave it for as long as you can before adding the sugar syrup...  
          Yeah, I found a couple that said that too--and a couple that said if you use fine shreds rather than large peelings then the oils and flavours are extracted in days rather than weeks. This also depends on using 95% alcohol rather than 50% (vodka) which takes longer to work.

          Since Im a dab hand with the microplane, and dont like peeling much, and didnt want to wait, I tried that. I also knew that the lemonade syrup I make only takes about 3 days to reach its peak, and it uses fine shreds.

          The shreds dried really quickly after being squeezed, and were very pale and like sawdust from the 4 days of alcohol immersion, with almost no lemon fragrance.

          The result has a much better taste than the local stuff--it is both stronger in flavour and alcohol, and much more aromatic. I may have enough to let some age for a couple of weeks, but Im not taking any chances, Im off to Dan Murphys for a new bottle of alcohol base tomorrow!

          I highly recommend this if you like lemon.

          Greg

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

            Sounds divine. am printing this out to do in the next few days.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

              Originally posted by 637B633C7A667C6B6B0E0 link=1273376522/5#5 date=1274316508
              Sounds divine. am printing this out to do in the next few days.
              Great, it will be ready for teh meet up on teh 6th ;D

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                Any one bringing this on the 6th...

                Would make for a great end to teh day

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                  Ive had an attempt at this and its pretty addictive - but too sweet.

                  In fact I was going to bring it over to the Brisbane meet on the 6th but you all looked a bit straightlaced so I left it in the car seeing it was 11am on a Sunday!

                  Also consulted the internet and found varying recipes and time frames from 4 days to 6 weeks and from fine gratings to submerging whole peels in the Vodka - I asked at First Choice and was told there was no such thing as 95% pure grain spirit ? anyway iI also do an orange infused vodka as well a bit like a Cointreau .. sort of ...and so Vodka it is.

                  I have just tried another batch and its been in my cupboard for 31 hours so far - this time I will try 300grams of sugar.

                  Its really a great discovery

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                    Originally posted by 7D5E5C4740494C41452E0 link=1273376522/8#8 date=1277026076
                    I asked at First Choice and was told there was no such thing as 95% pure grain spirit ?
                    Dan Murphys and the Polish club are the only two places I have come across it - ask for Spirytus vodka.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                      Originally posted by 7673607B67617A120 link=1273376522/9#9 date=1277032966
                      Originally posted by 7D5E5C4740494C41452E0 link=1273376522/8#8 date=1277026076
                      I asked at First Choice and was told there was no such thing as 95% pure grain spirit ?  
                      Dan Murphys and the Polish club are the only two places I have come across it - ask for Spirytus vodka.
                      are you guys sure they are selling 95% spirit? Spirit at the strength is quite dangerous??? is it intended to be consumed at that %?

                      i am a bit of a home brewer, I aim for +-93% but would not consider consuming it. I find it actually flavours up in the 40 - 60% range best but that is making a whiskey on oak chips and over years of soaking......


                      ok so they do..... thats crazy

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                        Theres a technique to drinking it... but I wouldnt recommend it.

                        Take a breath... drink... wait... wait... wait... exhale... gasp as your throat burns.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                          Originally posted by 5172706B6C65606D69020 link=1273376522/8#8 date=1277026076
                          Ive had an attempt at this and its pretty addictive - but too sweet.
                          Glad you liked it, Im enjoying my second batch. Once the oils are dissolved it is ready to make, and the finer the shreds the quicker the extraction. It does also smooth out with a bit of bottle age, even stored in the freezer.

                          Ive decided I really like a lime or twos peel in the mix for added flavour, and of course you can make it as sweet or as strong as you like. I would not advise a drink without the added water though. My Hungarian friend says the undiluted spirit would be popular at home! Me--I get a buzz from one shot glass full straight from the fridge.

                          Greg

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                            A beautiful drink is limoncello, and thats from a usual non-drinker.
                            I buy a rather expensive imported limoncello but i dont imbibe often so a bottle lasts me quite a long time.
                            Straight its a wonderful digestive (thats how its used in Italy) but its equally lovely through some tonic water.

                            I knew it was something one could make at home but i didnt realise just how simple it was.
                            How does it work out, cost wise? I imagine the Spirytus is quite expensive.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Limoncello--lemon ecstasy with your coffee

                              I got the Spirytus for [ch8800]$55 and that made about 1.2 Litres of Limoncello at 40%. The local stuff was 25% and cost about $42 for 500 ml.

                              Even with the cost of the lemons, the homemade is much cheaper--and the taste was **FAR** superior.

                              Time for my third batch this weekend.

                              Greg

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