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So... What is it?
When life gives you lemons, you make Limoncello! But what do we do if life gives us limes? we make limecello too of course! Here we show you how to make the italian classics, with a special twist! Limoncello is made by infusing lemon zest in high-proof alcohol, then mixing it with simple syrup to create a sweet, intensely lemony digestivo, but today we show you our little twist on the italian classic to make it that much more delicious!
Batch Size & Cook Time
- Aprox 1.5L (0.4 gal) of 25% ABV Limoncello
- 10 mins peeling
- 1 week soaking
- 10 mins diluting and adding sugar
What ingredients?
Recipe below is for Limoncello, for a lime version simply swap out lemons for limes!
- 120g / 4.23oz lemon peels - Around 9 medium to large lemons (or limes for limecello)
- 500ml (16.9 oz) of 92% ABV vodka (184 proof) - or as high in alcohol as you can find, higher alcohol will speed up flavour extraction)
- 640ml / 21.6oz water to dilute vodka after soaking on lemons from 92% to 38% (if youre using regular 40% vodka ignore this)
- 430ml / 14.54oz boiling water (to dissolve sugar)
- 160g / 5.64oz raw sugar
- 30g / 1oz agave syrup
PLEASE NOTE - if you started with using regular 40% vodka, then you also need to half the amount of sugar syrup you add to the lemon spirit, because you wont have as much lemon spirit as the recipe above. so half the agave, boiling water and raw sugar.
Step by step process
Step 1 – Making the Lemon Spirit
- Start by peeling all your lemons (or limes) being careful not to peel too much pith
- add all the peels to a glass jar and measure out 500ml (16.9 oz) of 92% ABV vodka (184 proof). if you cant make or find high proof vodka you can use regular vodka but give the peels an additional week to soak on the vodka as higher ABV vodka helps with better flavour extraction
- allow the vodka to soak on the peels for 1 to 2 weeks (extraction will be finished when the peels loose their colour and become somewhat brittle).
Step 2 – Making the sugar syrup
- After the lemon spirit has finished soaking its time to make the sugar syrup
- measure out 430ml / 14.54oz of boiling water and use it to fully dissolve the 160g / 5.64oz raw sugar and 30g / 1oz of agave syrup
NOTE: if you're starting with 40% vodka then half the sugar syrup ingredients because you wont have as much spirit as the original recipe
Step 3 - Diluting the Lemon Spirit to make Limoncello!
- Strain the peels out of the lemon spirit and use 640ml / 21.6oz of water to dilute the high proof vodka down to 38% (if you started with regular 40% vodka skip this dilution step)
- Now mix the sugar syrup and lemon vodka together to make your limoncello!
- bottle your liquer and store in the freezer to serve ice cold and enjoy!!
