Here's how to make homemade dogwood-flavored lemonade.
I have an interesting story with dogwood. Once, when my wife was leaving for the shooting at 4 o'clock in the morning, sleepily wished her instead of a successful day: "Good dogwood to you!"
We laughed well then, and when after a while she asked what traditions our family would have, I just blurt out: “Let's celebrate the dogwood day.”
Now we celebrate dogwood day every autumn. In this case, we do not eat dogwood itself. So this year I decided to make lemonade out of it. Why lemonade?
It's simple. I tried to make jam from dogwood, but my wife and I did not like it. But in lemonade, its taste should suit well. I will not delay, let's cook!
Step-by-step recipe on how to make dogwood lemonade
- Water 3 liters
- Sugar 300 g
- Zest and juice of 3 lemons
- Cornel 200 g (with seeds)
First, I choose good ripe dogwood fruits, those that have already become soft. I wash them under running water.
Now I remove the zest from the lemons with a grater. Can be cut with a knife, only without a white layer, it tastes bitter.
I squeeze out lemon juice. When I need to squeeze out a small amount of juice, I use a manual squeezer, it's faster, and I wash less dishes.
I send the juice and lemon zest to a glass bowl, add sugar and whole dogwood berries.
With the help of a puree pusher, I crush the dogwood so that it releases the juice.
I mix the resulting mass so that the juice is combined with sugar, and pour it into a three-liter jar. I add filtered water to the very neck.
Close the lid and shake until the sugar is completely dissolved. I put the jar in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours, and preferably at night, so that the zest has time to give its taste and aroma.
After the specified time, I filter the lemonade through a fine sieve and can be served. Let's show what I did.
The lemonade turned out to be a very delicate pink color. Moreover, the color does not darken in air, this is all thanks to the lemon juice. The taste surprised me: there is absolutely no astringency in it, which is inherent in dogwood. This lemonade is too sweet for my wife, so I dilute it with soda water.
What do you do with the dogwood?