Recipe - Lemon Honey

To make 2 large 600gm jam jars, you'll need:

4 Lemons
2 cups Sugar
125 grams butter
4 Eggs

Preparation - Making the Lemon Zest

Wash the lemons and dry them. Using a grater, grate off the yellow outer peel. Do not grate the white pith underneath, it will add a bitter taste to your Lemon Honey. The grater shown above has a coarse (cheese grater) side, a medium side and a fine side (for nutmeg and hard dry parmesan cheese). The medium side is best for grating the lemon rind. The lemon aroma is an aromatic oil which is concentrated just beneath the skin. Adding this to the mixture imparts a strong natural lemon flavour without making it too sour.

Method

Strain the juice from the four lemons and sieve out any pips.

Set up a double boiler by adding a smaller pot inside a larger one, filled with water that is simmering and melt the butter.

Wash three 600ml jam jars in hot water and place in a warm oven to dry. We want these to be hot when we add the lemon honey to prevent cracking the glass jars. You will probably only need two. The third is there for any left over.

The double boiler I used.

Stir in the sugar and add the lemon juice. Continue stirring until all the sugar is dissolved.

Beat the eggs

Beat your eggs

While the eggs are beating, add the lemon zest to the molten butter, lemon juice and sugar mixture.

When the eggs are beaten, add gradually to the mixture as you stir it.

Continue stirring until the mixture thickens. At first the mixture will have a white froth which will gradually decrease as the mixture thickens. When all the froth has vanished continue stirring for 3 minutes.

The mixture will slowly thicken

Pour into hot jars (preheat the jars by washing in hot water and drying in the oven. This prevents them cracking when the hot lemon honey is poured into them.

Screw on the lids while the mixture is still hot and leave to cool. The jars will vacuum seal.

Store in the fridge once opened.

Something a bit different?

Lemon Honey is quite versatile to have in the fridge:

An indulgent luncheon

Try fresh buttered scones with lemon honey or replace the raspberry jam in devonshire scones with lemon honey - a delightfully unforgettable experience!
In our restaurant we used to serve devonshire scones done both ways, fresh whipped cream with rasperry jam or lemon honey, in winter. It made us a very popular place for morning teas and brought in an income while we were doing the preparation for main meal times.

A novel dessert

Put a layer of lemon honey between pancakes and form a stack of about five pancakes. Cut the stack into 4 and serve with plain ice cream and a slice of lemon to garnish.

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