honey vanilla lemonade
Recipe: Artisan Bake
Shop, Meredith Rousseau
Yield: approx. 3.5
cups of lemonade concentrate
This is a favorite zippy summer drink
from our Farmers’ Market days! Our honey
vanilla lemonade starts as a homemade concentrate. The concentrate makes a wonderful hostess gift
and also keeps in the fridge for a month.
Serve well shaken with ice and can
be topped off with a float of your favorite fizzy seltzer or dry sparkling wine.
Recipe Notes: be
sure to zest the citrus prior to juicing.
You can replace the lemon juice/zest
for orange juice and zest.
To Make the Concentrate:
¾ cup honey (local, unfiltered preferred)
1 ¼ cups organic sugar
5 tablespoons lemon zest
2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, (halved lengthwise and scraped)
DIRECTIONS
Place a 2 quart saucepan on the stove. Pour honey, sugar, zest, juice and vanilla
bean (bean pod and scrapings) into the pot.
Turn heat to medium/low and bring to a light simmer stirring
occasionally, approximately 8-11 minutes.
Allow to simmer 2-3 minutes, turn off heat and move to a
cold burner on the stove and allow to cool 5-10 minutes.
Pour concentrate, including the vanilla bean, into a glass
jar or glass milk bottle. Refrigerate.
To Use: Fill a
cocktail shaker with ice. Shake the bottle
of lemonade concentrate well. Pour 2
ounces (1 shot) concentrate and 3 oz (1 ½ shots) of water into the glass. Using
the shaker, shake the mixture well. Approx. 1 minute. Pour contents, including ice, into a glass. For a fun twist: leave approx. ½-3/4 inches
of space at the top of the glass. Top with a float of your favorite tonic or
seltzer or dry sparkling wine (optional).
