Sweet Raspberry Lemonade

The last couple days have been pretty hot, close to 80. It was perfect weather to play outside with sprinklers and drink lemonade. Normally my idea of making lemonade is opening a can of frozen concentrate and maybe mixing it with some frozen berries, if im feeling fancy. This time I decided to go all out and do it home made. It's not something i'll do everytime, but definitely when i'm feeling up to it. Even with making the mistake of adding all of the raspberry puree to the lemonade (oops! I was wondering why it was so strong..) it still turned out fine.

Sweet Raspberry Lemonade

Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar, for a less sweet lemonade, take the sugar down to 3/4 cup

1 cup water to make the simple syrup

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4-6 lemons)

4 cups cold water

2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup raspberry sauce, depending on how much raspberry you like (recipe below)

Directions: Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Add the prepared raspberry sauce and stir to combine. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it. Serve over ice. Serves 6.

Easy Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 of a 12-ounce bag frozen raspberries, thawed

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon water

Directions: Place the thawed raspberries in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Add sugar and water and mix until the raspberries form a smooth puree. Transfer raspberry puree to a fine mesh strainer fit over a bowl. Press the puree through the strainer, until only the raspberry seeds and a bit of pulp remain the the strainer, and a beautiful raspberry sauce is all that’s in the bowl.