Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Fresh lemon paste is nothing more than whole lemons and sugar, cooked down and blended until smooth. Because the skin, pith and flesh all go in together, it carries the full perfume of the peel along with the sharpness of the juice, and it sets into a thick, glossy, spreadable paste with a clean bitter edge behind the sweetness.
I use it anywhere a cake needs real lemon rather than essence: stirred into buttercream, custard or mousse, folded through a sponge batter, brushed between layers, or thinned with a little syrup as a filling. A spoonful goes a long way, so a small batch lasts a long time in the fridge.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 626
Number of Units: 2
Unit Size: 600 ml jar
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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1000 |
35.2 ounces
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Fresh Lemon
Whole fresh lemons, used skin and all. Choose thin-skinned, unwaxed fruit if you can, as the peel is cooked and blended into the paste and carries most of the aroma.
whole, unwaxed
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washed and scrubbed |
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B
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250 |
8.8 ounces
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
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C
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1 |
0 ounce
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Potassium Sorbate (preservative 202)
Potassium sorbate, listed on labels as preservative 202, is a food-grade powder used in very small amounts to stop mould and yeast growing in jams, pastes and fillings. It is optional at home if the paste is kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
optional
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1251
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.
STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.
STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Scrub A (fresh lemons) well under running water to remove any wax or dirt. |
Skins clean, no stickiness |
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2 |
Cook |
Put the whole A (lemons) in a pot, cover with water and boil briefly, then drain. |
Skins softened and the bitterness of the raw peel knocked back; do not cook them to a mush |
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3 |
Cut |
When cool enough to handle, cut the A (lemons) open and cut out the centres — the hard core, the pithy middle and all the seeds. Keep the skin, pith and flesh. |
No seeds left, or the paste will taste harshly bitter |
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4 |
Blend |
Put the cleaned A (lemons) into a blender or food processor and blend to a fine, even pulp. |
Smooth, with no coarse pieces of peel remaining |
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5 |
Cook |
Return the pulp to the pot with B (caster sugar) and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture is smooth, thick and glossy. |
Thick enough to hold a line when a spoon is drawn across the base of the pot |
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6 |
Finish |
If using, stir C (potassium sorbate) through the hot paste until fully dissolved. |
Evenly distributed |
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7 |
Store |
Pour the hot paste into clean, dry jars, seal and cool. |
Cooled completely before refrigerating |
Important Notes
This batch makes roughly 1.25 kg of paste, enough to fill two 600 ml jars. Removing every seed and the hard white core is the single most important step — seeds make the paste unpleasantly bitter. The paste thickens further as it cools, so stop cooking while it is still a little looser than you want it. Stored in sealed jars in the fridge it keeps for several weeks; the optional preservative extends that, but is not needed if you use the paste quickly or freeze it in small portions. Use it by the spoonful to flavour buttercream, custard, mousse, sponge batter or cake syrup.
Tools & Arrangements
Large pot, colander, sharp knife and chopping board, blender or food processor, heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, kitchen scales, clean jars with lids
