lemonade recipes

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June

Lemonade and Gingersnaps on the Porch

Grandma's Gingersnaps

Fresh Lemonade

Lemonade and ginger snaps always remind me of my grandmother’s house in the summer. She was an amazing gardener, and every year there were fresh raspberries, crabapples, and vegetables of every type. The scent of her flower garden defied description, especially the lilacs and peonies, which we gathered by the armful. She always had at least two kinds of freshly baked cookies on hand, and these ginger snaps were one of my favorites. In the summer she would make fresh lemonade for us to go with the cookies, and the combination of the two has always been, for me, a siren song of summer.

Grandma’s Gingersnaps

¾ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup granulated sugar for rolling

¼ cup white sanding sugar (optional)

Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Add molasses and beat to combine. Add egg and beat again to combine. Whisk remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and mix just until well-combined. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350º. Roll walnut-sized pieces of dough into balls. Roll each ball in sugar and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You want to leave a bit of space around each cookie, as they will spread out while baking. With the bottom of a drinking glass, flatten each cookie into a thick disk, about ½” thick. Sprinkle each cookie with additional granulated sugar or with sanding sugar. (The sanding sugar is a coarser sugar, which is nice on the cookies if you have it, but regular granulated sugar also works well.) Bake 10-12 minutes, or until cookie tops resist when gently pressed with finger. If you like softer cookies, take them out the second they appear done. If you like crispier cookies, bake an extra minute or so. Cool on racks.

Fresh Lemonade

2 cups sugar

¾ cup cold water

2 whole lemons

1 ½ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 cups cold water

ice

With a vegetable peeler, carefully peel the yellow zest from one of the lemons. Combine the zest with the sugar and ¾ cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool. Remove the zest from the syrup and discard.

In a pitcher, combine ½ cup of the sugar syrup with the lemon juice and 4 cups cold water. Taste, and add more sugar syrup if necessary to attain desired level of sweetness. Slice the remaining whole lemon into thin slices and add to the pitcher along with some ice. Pour over ice into tall, frosty glasses and enjoy!