Valentine’s Project #2 – Home-made Lemon Extract

I made a delightful lemon and olive oil single layer cake a few weeks back. It is sweet without being too sweet, and is perfect for a cup of tea or even breakfast. The recipe called for lemon zest and lemon juice. That got me thinking about a book I just finished by Jennifer Reese called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn’t Cook from Scratch.

One of the recipes was for a home-made lemon extract. I thought that you could replace the zest and juice with the same amount of the home-made lemon extract and have a more-lemon-y taste.

First, I got everything I needed. I found some food-safe jars, organic lemons and 100 proof vodka.

I boiled the jars; I am super-freaked about issues with food safety.

I scrubbed the lemons to get rid of any remaining dirt. Since you’re using the zest, it’s important that you use organic lemons. They aren’t as pretty and they are much, much smaller, but they aren’t covered with pesticides.

After I zested all the lemons, I squeezed out juice to add to the mixture.

Taking the jars out of the boiling water with tongs, I then put juice and zest in each jar and covered immediately with the vodka.

You are supposed to keep the jars in a dark, cool place (but not in the fridge), and shake them each day for ten days. Then, you’re going to want to use them pretty quickly – within a couple of weeks. It’s an excellent excuse to make that lemon and olive oil cake!