Homemade Apple Lemonade Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup lemon juice (strained (I usually need 3 - 4 lemons))
- 4 - 5 honeycrisp apples (to make 1 ½ cups of apple cider / juice)
- 2 - 4 tbsp white sugar (optional (see recipe notes for substitutes))
Steps
- 1
Cut the lemons in half and juice the lemons. Strain the lemon juice to remove the seeds and extra pulp. Measure out ½ cup of lemon juice and set it aside.
- 2
Depending on your juicer, cut the apples into pieces to make it easier to fit in your juicer. If your juicer has a larger chute, you can keep the apples whole as well.
- 3
Pass the apples through the juicer and collect the apple juice / cider. As the apple juice comes out of the juicer, add about 1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice into the apples to slow down oxidation (and the apple juice from turning brown).
- 4
When you have just over 1 ½ cups of apple juice, you can stop juicing the apples.
- 5
Remove any froth on top, and pass the juice through a fine mesh strainer to remove any extra pulp.
- 6
EASY OPTION - Instead of juicing apples, you can use 100% apple cider or juice as well.
- 7
As soon as the apple juice is ready, add the lemon juice to the apple juice. My preferred ratio is for every 3 parts of apple juice, add 1 part of lemon juice to get great balance between lemon and apple flavor. But you can also taste the apple lemonade and adjust the ratio to your taste.
- 8
Add the sugar if needed, and stir to dissolve. My preference is to only add about 1 - 2 tbsp of sugar per batch if the apple cider is fairly sweet. If your apples were more tangy, then you may need to add more sugar.
- 9
Chill the apple lemonade until you’re ready to serve.
- 10
To serve, add a generous amount of ice into serving glasses. Fill the glass with the apple lemonade and garnish with apple slices and lemon slices or wedges.
- 11
The apple lemonade can be diluted slightly, if you like. However, I prefer to keep the flavor strong, so that the ice (in the serving glass) will dilute the drink as it melts.