Happy Wednesday! Making homemade lemonade is one of those super simple activities that I don’t do nearly enough. This past Sunday I reaaaaally wanted a treat, but I’m sure you remember that I’m saving up for a travel adventure, which means NO treats! At least no treats that I have to pay for. After gazing longingly into my freezer and still not seeing any ice cream, I spun around and spotted an enormous bowl of lemons on my countertop and that’s how this homemade lemonade recipe was born.
I’m using the term recipe loosely. It’s really just water, lemon juice and simple syrup, but hey, there’s ingredients and there’s an order in which to add them so therefore it’s a recipe?!
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about three pounds of baby lemons)
- 3 cups sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1 gallon of cold water
Instructions
- Combine three cups of water and three cups of sugar in a small sauce pot and turn onto high. Once bubbling, turn down to medium low and allow to simmer and thicken for at least 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Juice a LOT of lemons until you end up with at least 2 1/4 cups of fresh lemon juice.
- Combine the freshly squeezed lemon juice and cold water in a large gallon pitcher.
- Stir in half the simple syrup and give it a taste. Continue adding simple syrup about a 1/4 cup at a time until you find your desired sweetness. (My man has a sweet tooth. I used all 3 cups!)
I must admit, I felt poorly about dumping three cups of sugar into a sauce pot, but let’s be real, lemonade without sugar is lemon water. Lemon water is delicious, but it’s not a treat and that’s what I needed on Sunday. At first I only added a cup and a half of simple syrup and I thought it tasted damn good, but K hated it. I added more sugar hoping he would like it and he did and the best part? I liked it even more! I guess sugar isn’t always a bad thing. It’s only Wednesday, but we’re almost all out already. I’m actually off to the store now to buy some more lemons while they’re on sale 🙂 As with most things, I love the homemade version way better than anything I could pick up on the market shelves. It’s a little labor of love and it makes the lemonade taste that much sweeter.
