Make this easy and delicious Limoncello di crema recipe

The last time I was in Sorrento, Italy, I had the chance to taste this wonderful drink.  Sorrento is known for its lemons and every restaurant serves their own version of this.  There is a 'regular' limoncello and a creamy one.  My favorite was the creamy one.

This recipe will take several months to make but is so worth it.  First you will make the lemon infused Everclear, then you will add the sweet cream component.

Some people make it with vodka, but Everclear will infuse the flavors much better.  While this recipe does not require a lot of hands-on time to make, it does take a few months from start to finish.

Keep in mind, this is only for people of legal drinking age and please, DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE.

Limoncello di Crema

Makes about three, 750 ml bottles 

• 14 organic lemons 
• 750 ml Everclear (151 proof)
• 3 cups half and half
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups sugar 
• 1 Vanilla bean  

1.      Wash and dry the lemons. With a thin skin peeler, remove the lemon skin without any white part (gives the infusion a bitter taste). Infuse the lemon rind and alcohol in an airtight glass container, in a dark and cool place for a minimum of one month. (I did mine for 3 months).  I found that a half gallon canning jar works well for this step.  The alcohol will turn yellow.  


Notice the color of the Everclear.  It's nice and yellow.

2.      Once you have infused the Everclear as long as you choose, you will need to remove the lemon rind from the alcohol.  You may want to filter the rind out, but I found that since I had long strips of rind, it did not get pieces into the alcohol.  If you have smaller pieces, just pour the alcohol through a strainer to filterer the lemon alcohol mixture. Set aside. 

3.      Put the half and half, milk, sugar and whole vanilla bean in a pan and bring to a boil. Mix until the milk comes to a boil and the sugar dissolved. Allow to cool for several hours with the vanilla pod inside. 

Finally, limoncello di crema

 

4.      Remove the vanilla bean and strain, if necessary. Mix the milk mixture with the lemon / alcohol mixture. Fill clean bottles and close.  Store the bottles in the freezer and serve very cold – The high alcohol content will not freeze the drink.

Fabulous watermelon martini recipe

A few years ago, I was looking for something to do with an extra watermelon I purchased.  I looked around the internet and found something that looked pretty good.  While I made a few changes to the recipe, it's pretty close to the original...and boy, is it good.

Sorry, I do not have photos of this...we enjoyed them before we had a chance to take any.  They will look beautiful in a martini glass and have that pretty pinkish red color like a cosmopolitan does.  Here's the recipe:

Watermelon Martini 

·        1 cup watermelon juice

·        1/4 cup vodka

·        1/4 cup watermelon schnapps

·        2 tablespoons simple syrup

·        1 lime, juiced

Directions

To make watermelon juice, remove the meat from the shell and put it in a food processor, blender or Vitamix.  Blend until very smooth.
     
  Pour the watermelon juice, vodka, watermelon schnapps, simple syrup, (recipe below) and lime juice into a cocktail shaker over ice. Cover, and shake until the outside of the shaker has frosted. Strain into the chilled glasses. 

To make simple syrup, put equal parts of granulated sugar and water in a saucepan.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Boil until sugar is completely dissolved.  Cool syrup.  This may be stored in the refrigerator covered, for about a week.

I make several cups at a time since this is great mixed into iced tea or anywhere you want sugar to be nicely dissolved.