Vintage Lemonade

  4.7 – 257 reviews  

This soft and supple blueberry coffee cake features a lovely cinnamon streusel topping. Ideal as a late-morning snack with a cup of coffee or as a breakfast treat.

Prep Time: 45 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins
Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. 5 lemons
  2. 1 ¼ cups white sugar
  3. 1 ¼ quarts water

Instructions

  1. Peel the rinds from the 5 lemons and cut them into 1/2 inch slices. Set the lemons aside.
  2. Place the rinds in a bowl and sprinkle the sugar over them. Let this stand for about one hour, so that the sugar begins to soak up the oils from the lemons.
  3. Bring water to a boil in a covered saucepan and then pour the hot water over the sugared lemon rinds. Allow this mixture to cool for 20 minutes and then remove the rinds.
  4. Squeeze the lemons into another bowl. Pour the juice through a strainer into the sugar mixture. Stir well, pour into pitcher and pop it in the fridge! Serve with ice cubes.
  5. The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount for the entire lemon. The actual amount of the lemon consumed will vary.

Reviews

Sandy Johnson
HUGE HIT!!! This lemonade was so good, we went out and bought glass pitcher specifically for it. Followed the recipe exactly. Didn’t have a taste of the rinds whatsoever. Have already been informed that I will be making a lot more of this lemonade this summer. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Mark Kline
This is the best lemonade I’ve ever had and it was a hit. I followed the recipe exactly. Note – it may not be for everyone because it is sweet.
Carlos Williams
Delish. I doubled it and proved to be a bit of a hassle. Had to strain in multiple containers because I didn’t have ones that were big enough, sugar didn’t dissolve in hot , boiling water like I expected it to so I had to carefully stir the peel mixture ( other reviews said this would make it bitter), took more like 1.5hrs or more, and wasn’t really cool enough to drink at that point. That said, please try this. It’s very tasty. The only way I can describe it is smooth. That sharp pucker that I thought I really liked is gone using this method and apparently I prefer it with no pucker but great fresh lemon flavor. I didn’t know what I was missing! Thanks for the wonderful recipe! By the way, don’t bother wasting your time making limeade (limes only) with this—-bitter and overly sweet with very little lime taste. I couldn’t even drink it. Stick with lemons and you won’t be disappointed. Simply Delicious!
James Torres
Tastes like lemon peels. Bitter! Stick with regular lemonade
Alexandra Alvarado
This is vintage alright! Just wanted to mention that you don’t used to entire rind just the outside yellow peel because the inside white part, aka the pith, is extremely bitter and will overpower the finished product. Use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife with a light hand, you just want the outer yellow, but don’t freak out about a little of the pith being attached and THEN juice your lemons. It’s harder to peel a lemon after it’s been juiced. If you think that they aren’t going to juice very well, roll them on the counter like you are kneading dough or nuke them for about 10 seconds and roll them. Nothing tastes better than homemade lemonade!
Todd English
Love it….added strawberries…yum
Andrew Murphy
I’ve made several home made lemonade recipes over the years but I’ve liked this one the best. It’s the most “lemony”. Must be the lemon oils in the peels….. Thanks for the recipe!
James Melendez
Best lemonade ever!
Christian Marks
Absolutely delicious! A must try! It’s worth all the extra work! This lemonade has the strong lemon flavour I’ve been looking for, without being sickly-sweet like the grocery store kind. Make sure NOT to include the whites of the lemon rinds to avoid any bad bitter flavour. I used a vegetable peeler and then cut the pieces smaller with scissors. I also used golden sugar instead of white, and ohhhhh my gosh! I’m going to be making this recipe all summer.
Jay Thomas
This was my first time making homemade lemonade and it was great. It’s kind of a lot of work but it’s worth it. I used only 1 cup of sugar just because I wanted to cut out a little of the calories, and it was fine. If you want it sweeter then use the amount recommended.
Charles Anderson
It was so yummy!
Teresa Anderson
Best lemonade recipe!! Used nearly half of the recommended sugar and it didn’t need any more in my opinion!
Jason Gonzales
I love this lemonade. It tastes exactly like the lemonade they serve at the county fair. (I also have mixed it with the pink lemonade UV)
Johnathan Gomez
I make this lemonade at least once a month!!!
Charles Moreno
I picked up a big bag of lemons at the store and made this recipe my wife doesn’t like lemonade she said but the picture was empty by the end of the day I followed the recipe 100%
Abigail Mendoza
Easy to make and well worth the wait. Letting the lemon rinds flavor the sugar adds a layer of complexity to the lemonade. Sheer perfection!
Lindsay Phillips
Hands down, the best lemonade I’ve in a long time. Thanks also to poster who mentioned not to use any of the white from the lemons as it would make it bitter. So good. I may try just a tad less sugar next time. Hats off to the Victorians!
Lauren Valdez
Perfect very tasty
Richard Parker
I found this recipe ridiculously sweet. I like my lemonade tart, but I didn’t expect homemade lemonade to be so sweet. I peeled the lemons using a peeler so I didn’t get any of the bitter white pith and it’s not difficult if you just peel it in strips down the lemon (not around the lemon). I tasted it as I was adding the water/sugar mixture to the juice at the end and I found it already too sweet for me and I still had 1 1/4 cups of the water remaining! From there I even added an extra lemon’s worth of juice and it’s still sweet to me. I doubt I’ll make this recipe again, but if I do it’ll take a lot of adjusting. My lemons were regularly sized, not abnormally small. I dumped the extra sugar water.
Roy Farmer
The steeped lemon rinds embittered the drink. Some liked the flavor, but not all.
Jessica Ross
I made this on a hot summer day. Loved it! But I did make slight alterations to suit my needs. I reduced the sugar to 1 cup. I added 2 more juiced lemons to 2 quarts of water and added I teaspoon of sliced ginger to the lemon zest and sugar mix. Very refreshing. Will make again.

 

Leave a Comment