I have a very productive key lime tree in my back yard. About this time of year I am inundated with key limes. I've made preserved key limes, pickled key limes, key lime marmalade and key lime pie. I have a few bags of key lime juice in the freezer and I've given pounds away. Still, I have much, much more. So, let's make a Nalewka from key limes.
Let's make Keylimencello! It's my personal take on the ever popular Italian cordial - Limoncello.
Limoncello is a lovely lemon flavored liqueur/cordial that is readily available commercially almost everywhere in the world. In the "Old Counrty", in Italy, it is still often made at home. The process is simple, easy and fun. I wasn't sure how the recipes would work with limes so this was a little bit of a learning process for me.
I started of with 2, 1 liter, bottles of Baczewski potato vodka, 5 key limes and 5 table spoons of sugar.
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| Start with pealing and juicing 5 key limes. | Add the vodka to the peels and sugar to the key lime juice. | Leave in a sunny location for 2 weeks. |
First I carefully peeled the limes with a sharp knife. You want to get as little of the white pith as possible - it will give your Nalewka a nasty, very bitter taste. Next, I juiced the peeled limes into a separate, seal-able, jar.
I put the peels into a big enough jar and pour in the vodka. I like to use a Mason jar because it can be tightly sealed. I added about 1 tablespoon of sugar for each squeezed lime (5) to the juice, seal it and put it in the refrigerator.
I placed the sealed jar in a sunny location for about 2 weeks. Shaking it every day or so I watched the vodka turn a light greenish-yellow color while it absorbed the flavor and aromatics from the key lime peels.
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| Strain the lime peels from the vodka. | Pour the warm lime syrup into the nalewka. | Filter the Nalewka to avoid goobers. |
After 2 weeks I strained out the lime peels. They were almost colorless by now. I heated up the lime juice and sugar mixture in a small pan and when all the sugar was dissolved I poured the warm syrup into the Nalewka. I mix well and than filtered it. Filtering is not necessary but it does help prevent goobers from forming in the bottom of your bottle. I like to use a Brita filter - it's very handy, inexpensive and does the job well.
What I ended up with, at this point, was a nice Nalewka with a delicate, slightly bitter, citrusy flavor. It's not sweet enough to be a liqueur. I like it and it's great for mixing but I was really looking for something that had as much sweetness and flavor as the Italian Limoncellos. So I kept some of this for mixing and the remaining 7 cups I decided to fortify and take it over the line and turn it into a cordial.
Making a Key Lime Nalewka Into a Keylimencello
I picked 2 pounds of key limes from my tree. I washed them and quartered them and put them in a jar. I covered them with 3 cups of sugar and let this stand, on the counter, overnight, so that the sugar can pull the flavor out of the limes.
The next day I put the limes and the mostly dissolved sugar into a pot and heated the mixture slowly to a boil, stirring, so as not to burn the sugar. I let the syrup cool just a little and poured it into the 7 cups of leftover Nalewka. I mixed it well and let it cool tightly sealed - you don't want to loose any alcohol through evaporation. Once the Nalewka was cooled I filtered it in the Brita again and bottled it.
This was much closer in sweetness and body to the Limoncello you can buy in the store. I keep a small bottle of this stuff in the freezer for an after dinner treat. It has a distinct lime flavor, a smooth but not overpowering sweetness and is great for sipping as well as for cocktails. One of my favorites is 1 part Keylimencello, 1 part Tequila, a twist of lime, over ice and with a little tonic - must be happy hour, about now, someplace in the world.
