Summer Treat: Joy the Baker's Raspberry Lemonade

I've had some frozen raspberries sitting in my freezer for who knows how long, so I was thrilled when Joy the Baker posted her recipe for Summer Sweet Raspberry Lemonade. Few things say summer to me more than an ice cold glass of raspberry lemonade. Until recently, I've always been the type to "make" my lemonade from frozen concentrate. That was until I decided to make a concerted effort to cut high-fructose corn syrup from my diet and reduce my sugar intake in general, both for health reasons and environmental ones.

Last time I was at the grocery store I stocked up on some lemons (both for this recipe and also for some zest I needed for another recipe) and got around to using them today.

To be perfectly honest, you can't beat the convenience of those frozen concentrate juices. From start to the end of clean up, it took me more than an entire half-hour episode of "Marketplace" (I'm a big public radio fan and I like to have some "company" while I'm in the kitchen) -- roughly 45 minutes. Granted, I'm already a slow and deliberate cook and also I had a teeny tiny strainer. As you can imagine, if you don't have an electric juicer or one a really neat mechanized retro juicer press (which if you do, I'm so jealous of you), this recipe requires a bit of elbow grease. I have neither of these contraptions, just a beautiful glass juicer that I did not have any luck finding at stores but was able to nab from my mother's kitchen (she never uses it anyway).

Upon the Kitchn's recommendation, I halved my lemons lengthwise, which for reasons untold, yields more juice -- I was able to squeeze the full cup's worth from four lemons, one of which was admittedly a little runty. I stuck pretty closely to the measurements in the recipe, opting for 3/4 cup sugar rather than the full cup for the sake of my sugar intake. I also put in slightly more raspberry sauce because I wanted to use up all sauce I pressed through my tiny strainer.


The juice needs to chill for about 20 minutes longer, but the initial sampling was divine. There is, of course, the satisfaction of making something for yourself and knowing exactly what's in it -- no unpronouncable ingredients or HFCS here!

Final note, lemonade is a fantastic way to use up those naked lemons left over from zesting. Here are few other uses for those sad nakie lemons shivering in your fridge.