Mixology Monday: Limoncello

Mixology Monday over at Jiggle the Handle this month is Lemon. And Limoncello is sooooo predictable, yes. But I just finished a batch and am immensely proud of it, so I'm posting.

I found a whole slew of recipes here, although I can't tell you which I made, since I kind of mixed different recipes. But from what I remember, I used about 10 organic lemons and a liter of Everclear to steep them in.

Limoncello is incredibly easy to make, but the fact you made it impresses the hell out of people when you serve it to them. You all should go make some yourselves immediately.

In the process of searching the internet for recipes, I came across two good tips:
1. You know the peels are done infusing when they are brittle like potato chips. Weird. They also get all pale.

2. Adding simple syrup to the clear infusion while both are cool results in a clear product. Adding it while the syrup is slightly warm makes cloudy syrup. (I discovered this in the Creme de Menthe making.) Since most of the recipes and descriptions of limocello say it's cloudy, I added the simple syrup while warm. Worked like a charm.

I've had limoncello before, and it tasted like artificial lemon candy. This version tastes like sweet fresh lemons.

I bottled quite a bit of it, some in small little lemon-shaped bottles and some in larger bottles. It made much more than I thought it would, actually. The cloudiness of it, and the fact that you keep it in the freezer, lends itself to frosted bottles. A friend of mine just got married, so for his bachelor's party I gave him a large bottle that was sort of special Evian container, which I frosted with glass etching cream.