When life gives you lemons...The best idea

When life gives you lemons… then what? What if you have a lemon tree in your garden and you simply don’t know what to do with the abundance of harvest you are blessed with each year? Well, I have a few ideas:

I always think of Italy and the beautiful Capri island when my lemon trees are ready to harvest. There is just something about the freshness of a lemon…

Bake a Lemony gift for your neighbours

Lemon Tart / Lemon Meringue

Ingredients:

2 Eggs (separated)
2 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice (preferably freshly squeezed)
1 cup Milk
12.5 ml melted butter
Pinch of salt

For this recipe, you can use a ready-baked shell of puff or short pastry, or crumb crust. (Now selling in a lot of shops and easily ready for quick baking.)

How to make the lemon tart:

Mix the sugar and flour.
Add the lemon juice, beaten yolks, milk, butter, and salt, and blend well.
Cook over boiling water until thick, stirring continuously.
Let cool.
Pour the mixture into a baked or a crumb crust shell.

For the topping:

Beat the egg whites until stiff, adding 6 tbsp sugar, by spoonfuls, while beating well after each addition.
Now cover the filling with this meringue mixture and bake in a moderated oven at 180 °C (350 °F) till the meringue is a delicate golden brown.

Lemon tart or lemon meringue are served cold.

A very cool gift idea is to place all the ingredients in the right quantities, in a basket with fresh lemons. Tie a ribbon and add the recipe (you can print the recipe card below) and you have a fabulous homemade gift idea.

Something oh so sweet

Easy Lemon Syrup

You can make very easy lemon syrup by just adding equal parts lemon juice and sugar: (e.g. 1 cup of fresh lemon juice – strained, to 1 cup of white granulated sugar)

Add a bit of lemon zest (according to your taste – I love it a lot).

Then stir it over medium heat until it is all dissolved.

Let it come to a boil and leave to boil, stirring regularly, until reduced.

Tip: If you want a light syrup for drizzling over pancakes, you can replace a little bit of the juice with water.

You can use lemon syrup:

on pancakes
in cocktails
to make lemonade
for baking cakes

How to know when it’s ready for use:

Reducing it by half is a good idea for when you want to serve it warm or at room temperature.
If you’re serving it cold and the syrup is too thick you can add a little bit of water.

Christmas or Birthday Gift Idea

Lemon Curd (Spread)

This is most probably the nr 1 thing people will tell you to make, as it is so versatile.

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 cup butter
Juice of 3 lemons (fresh)
Grated rind of 1 lemon

What to use lemon curd for:

You can use lemon curd

as a topping on cakes,
as a filling for flans,
on scones, pancakes, and even waffles and ice cream
and it makes for very pretty homemade gifts.

How to make Lemon Curd:

Combine the sugar, butter, lemon juice, and rind over slow heat till it boils, stirring continuously.
Add the beaten eggs and stir until it thickens.
Pour into a jar and seal.

This makes for a fabulous filling for a flan.

I hope you’ll try one of my recipes and let me know if you liked it. Maybe post a photo on our FB group: Travel and Home. We can’t all travel to Italy but we can enjoy the romantic idea of being in Italy while making some delish homemade treats.