This recipe uses fresh squeezed lemon juice and real raspberries, no juice concentrates. I like my lemonade a little on the tart side, so for me this is perfect. My daughter added a spoon of sugar and watered hers down a bit, then she loved it. So adjust the sugar to your own tastes.
I love this mixed half and half with iced tea! Yum!
Amanda’s Fresh Raspberry Lemonade
Makes 2 quarts
7 medium lemons
1 cup mashed fresh raspberries
1 heaping cup white sugar
water
First, reserve about 1/4 cup of the sugar and set aside. Pour the rest of the sugar into a medium saucepan. Add one cup of water. Stir and bring to a boil to dissolve sugar (this is called simple syrup). Turn off heat and let cool a bit.
Meanwhile, pour the reserved 1/4 cup of sugar over the mashed raspberries and let them sit for at least ten minutes to macerate.
While waiting for the berries, zest 6 of the 7 lemons. Place the zest into a zipper sandwich bag, squeeze out all the air, and put it in the freezer. Never cut up a lemon and waste the zest! :) Cut the six lemons in half and extract the juice (this should yield a little under a cup of juice). Cut the 7th lemon into slices. Set aside.
Pour the lemon juice through a strainer to eliminate the pulp and any seeds. Pour the juice into a 2 quart pitcher.
Push the macerated berries through a strainer using the back of a spoon. Pour the sweetened berry juice into the pitcher with the lemon juice.
Pour in the simple syrup (sugar water) into the pitcher and top off with water. Stir, add sliced lemons, and refrigerate.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Amanda Formaro
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bella8114 says
i froze this in Popsicle molds for my family and they raved about how delicious they were!!!!!!!
Amanda Formaro says
Oh what a great idea!
Kate says
A little confusing as to the final quantity of lemonade. You say use a 2 quart pitcher (that’s pretty BIG), and then the simple syrup is 1 cup, one cup of raspberry, one cup of lemon juice. Having made raspberry jam, I”m guessing you get about 1/2 cup of juice, so in total you have 2 1/2 cups of liquid. So to that I add 5 1/2 cups of water??? It would be nice to have exact measurements. Pretty pictures.
Amanda says
Hi Kate :) I’m sorry that you found this confusing. There are no exact measurements, just follow the instructions for the juices and simple syrup, it tells you to add them to the pitcher then to top off with water. So basically after adding the juice and syrup, fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water, leaving a little room for ice if you like. This recipe makes a 2 quart pitcher.
andrea says
love this drink!!!… thanks for makeing a delisiouse drink i made it for my familly and they loved it. :D
Amanda says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Amanda says
Oh so glad you commented, I need to make some of this for tomorrow's barbecue!
Cecilia says
Just made this for a cook-out. It was amazing and very refreshing! I thought the sugar level was perfect. The raspberry flavor seemed to come out more over time.
Lynnylu says
A lovely summer drink!
Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes] says
I never save any zest. And then I'm always buying more for it! Thanks for the great tip, the lemonade looks delicious :)