How to Make Limoncello

Today I'm going to show you how to make authentic Italian Limoncello. This recipe has been passed down generations and it's something that I learnt while staying here in Italy. It is crazy easy to make with only 3 ingredients and stick around because I'm also going to show you how to make a classic Italian cocktail with it. We're going to make a Limoncello Spritz. Limoncello is a lemon liqueur that originated from Southern Italy and it's commonly enjoyed as a digestive after a big Italian meal. Once you've made your own homemade Limoncello, there's no going back. So let's get started. So our first step is to actually make the lemon liqueur with 2 ingredients. One of course are the lemons which is probably the most important ingredient to make this recipe. It is important that you are using organic lemons, not ones that have possibly been waxed or sprayed with any pesticides because we are actually using the peel. So once you have your lemons, give them a quick little wash in case they have any dust or dirt and grab a peeler, just a classic vegetable peeler and you want to peel the skin. You want to peel down firmly but not too firm. You don't want to have too much of this white part in the middle. It will make your liqueur a little bit too bitter. So firmly press down and just try and not get too much of the white part. And for the recipe you need 8 medium to large lemons. I learned how to make this Limoncello from one of my really good Italian friends. I tried it at her house one time and I could not believe that it was homemade. Once you've got all your lemon peels ready, grab yourself a large glass jar. This one here is about 1.5 litres which is about 54 fluid ounces. So you want to put all of the lemon peels inside. And the second ingredient to make this lemon liqueur is actually of course the alcohol. The type of alcohol you use is very important. You want it to be a very high proof alcohol. Normally you can find it at brands like Vodka or Everclear. They go up to 95% alcohol proofing. So crack her open. Woo! That is strong. You don't want to drink this on its own friends. So pour in a litre of the alcohol which is about 4 cups, just over. Even though it's only a litre bottle of alcohol, you want to make sure you've still got some room in there. A little tip here, don't throw these jars out. Take all the tags off, give it a good wash and you can actually use this to store your limoncello in once it's been made. I'll show you in one second. I still have some from my last batch. It's actually the same brand of alcohol that I used. It's a great size jar. Now seal up your jar nice and tight and we're going to let this limoncello liqueur ferment very nice and slowly for all those beautiful flavours to develop. We're going to keep this stored for 25 days. I know it might sound like a lot but trust me, it is worth it. I've tried different limoncello recipes that have a very short time for developing and it doesn't taste the same. You want to keep this in a dark, cool place in your house. I actually keep this in the back of one of my pantry cupboards, just at the bottom where it doesn't get touched, doesn't get seen. So we'll put this to sleep for 25 days and then we'll be back. Now when it comes to these lemons, don't worry, they are not going to go to waste because we've got beautiful fresh lemons here. You can basically make so many things with them, from salad dressings to soups, cakes, anything you can name them. What I personally like to do, I'll slice them up just into quarters, pop them in the freezer. When I need them, you can just take them out and they can defrost and they're good as new. So I'll see you guys in 25 days. Last peek of the colour it looks like now. Surprise will be what it looks like afterwards. Buonanotte! We are back. Hello again. Ready to check out our limoncello. It's been just under a month. Everyone's been well. Woo! Look at that. Look at how beautiful and dark the colour has gone. You can see it's a really deep yellow colour now. I'll take a quick smell. Woo! That is really lemony. Oh yeah. Ready to get done now. So what we'll need now is a large bowl along with a fine mesh sieve. We're going to pour the liqueur through. Wish you guys could smell this. Make sure we can get all of the lemon peels out. Make sure you get all the liqueur. We don't want to waste a single drop. I'm going to leave this on the side for now. Our next step is to make a simple syrup. So grab yourself a large pot. Pour in some water. And we're going to put it over a medium heat to slowly warm the water. Now we don't want the water to be boiling. But once you see the bubbles have just started to appear, you then want to go in with your sugar. Gently pour it all in. I know it seems like a lot of sugar. But don't worry, we are making a lot of limoncello with this. We're going to slowly stir the sugar until it dissolves. Just for about 2 minutes. Okay, it's been 2 minutes. We're going to turn it off the heat. And we're just going to keep stirring it for about 3-5 minutes. Just to make sure all of the sugar has dissolved. Without boiling anymore. And then the hard part is actually all done. You then want to slightly cool down the simple syrup. You want it to be just about warm. Not at room temperature yet. Because that's what's going to give us our beautiful yellow colour. So we're going to pour in our liqueur. We've got a gorgeous colour. And we're going to stir this for a couple of minutes. Just to make sure everything is incorporated well. If you do wait for the simple syrup to cool down too much, it will still taste good. But you won't have that really deep lemony yellow limoncello colour. Once our limoncello has come down to room temperature, it's time to bottle it up. I've got a few bottles here. This one is actually from the alcohol that I showed you guys earlier. And I've also got some smaller ones here. So I can give them away as little presents. Grab yourself a funnel. Ladle. We're going to slowly ladle it through. That beautiful colour. This limoncello recipe is going to make about 2.5 to 2.7 litres of limoncello. It's best to keep the caps off the limoncello bottles for now. So that any air bubbles will actually disappear. And also for the limoncello to come down to room temperature. And then we're going to store it in the fridge. Where it will keep for at least 1 or 2 years. And I guarantee it won't last that long. Or you can also leave it into the freezer. And limoncello is best when it's served ice ice cold. So I've had one stored in the freezer. Ready for this. And look how cute this little bottle is as well. Let's give it a taste. Cute little. Grappa glass. Peppers of course come to join us. Puppy this is something you actually can't taste test this time. Chin chin. That is so smooth. So light and fresh. Without that harsh bitter aftertaste that some limoncello is going to have. This is what limoncello should taste like. Now for the fun part though. Let's make the limoncello spritz. We'll need 3 ingredients. The limoncello of course. Prosecco along with some soda water. I very first had a limoncello spritz when we travelled to the Amalfi Coast. Years ago. And I became obsessed with it straight away. Because I love limoncello. And it's become one of my favourite cocktails. Especially through summer. I always get so scared popping these. Oppa! Okay, it's over. So grab yourself a nice glass. Pop in some ice. Now the ratio we're going to go for is a 3 to 1 ratio. Starting with the Prosecco at number 3. 1, 2, 3. Followed by the limoncello. That's a 2 part ratio. 1, 2. And finally a little dash of soda. Of course we're going to look the part with a slice of lemon in there too. Pop in our lemon wedge. Give it a little stir. Chin chin. Yum! That literally will take you to Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. It is so nice and fresh. Definitely a summer cocktail. I'm going to go and enjoy my drink. So I hope you guys try it and love it. And I'll see you in the next one. Ciao!