homemade lemonade recipe

homemade lemonade recipe

A simple and refreshing homemade lemonade recipe! You only need three ingredients (sugar, water, and lemons, and does water count as an ingredient?) to make this classic drink recipe. 

The Only Lemonade Recipe You’ll Ever Need

On Monday, we stretched our skill set by learning to make gourmet cookies with fancy brown butter, but today we’re taking a step back to something much simpler with an easy recipe for lemonade.

I know, I know, there are plenty of you out there who don’t “need” a lemonade recipe. Just like not everyone needs a recipe for French Toast or Macaroni & Cheese and some people are perfectly fine just winging it. I respect that, but for the rest of us (particularly those of you like me, who like neatly spelled-out instructions), we have a recipe.

Lemonade is easy to make, but achieving the right balance of lemon and water is critical for a perfectly delightful drink that everyone will love.

I got this lemonade recipe from my brother, Josh. He is always being asked to make lemonade (and tea) for my family. He makes the best lemonade and so I asked him to share his secret recipe with me. Turns out, it came from the back of a lemon juice bottle. This recipe is similar to that one, but of course, I had to make a few small tweaks, including using real, fresh lemons and simple syrup.

Simple Syrup in Lemonade

When Josh makes lemonade, he simply combines everything and stirs it together. Lemon juice, water, and sugar all go into the pitcher and get a good mixing and that’s that. However, the lemonade always needs to be stirred before serving, to make sure the sugar isn’t settled onto the bottom of the pitcher.

To prevent this, I recommend making a simple simple syrup. All this involves is combining one cup of granulated sugar and one cup of water in a saucepan. Gently heat the mixture over low heat while stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved.

And that’s it. The sugar will be completely dissolved into the water, so when you combine this with your lemon juice (and the rest of the water) the sweetness will be evenly distributed without any evident sugar granules remaining.

Can I Make Lemonade Using Bottled Lemon Juice?

Yes,You can make this excellent lemonade recipe using bottled lemon juice, just like my brother does all the time.

However, it probably won’t come as a surprise to you that I recommend using freshly squeezed lemons whenever you have the chance! You’ll only need 3-4 nice sized lemons to get the cup of juice you need for this lemonade recipe.

Enjoy!

More Refreshing Summertime Recipes

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• Peach Sangria Granita
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