Cherry Jam Sweetened Strawberry Lemonade

I have this weird affinity for remembering recipes bloggers post from a long long time ago. Not all recipes, just random weird ones, not even ones that I necessarily was super into as soon as I saw them, but some just get stuck in my brain and don’t leave for a while. One of these was the blender lemonade from Pinch of Yum (which, btw was posted literally a year ago, so that tells you how long it stuck in my brain!). I was so fascinated by the idea that you could blend the lemons whole to make lemonade instead of squeezing them, the genius! I’m not a lemonade fanatic, I don’t usually order it at restaurants or make it very often at home, often because I know there’s a lot of extra sugar lurking in there that I would rather have in my dessert, but this concept kept nagging at my brain, telling me I needed to make it.

Obviously, a year passed and I was still occasionally thinking about this blender wonder. I needed another way to get more water in while at work, so I thought I would use up a few lemons, strawberries and limes that were hanging around my fridge. Then my brain went ‘BLENDER LEMONADE’ and this was born! In Lindsay’s recipe, she uses sweetened condensed milk and granulated sugar to make the lemonade all silky like, but I wanted to avoid the straight up sugar situation and went straight for the jam. I know jam still has a fair amount of sugar in it, but adding cherry jam seemed like a better way to flavor up the lemonade, while also adding a touch of sweetness. (By the way, my girl Christina over at Dessert For Two got the jam sweetened concept stuck in my brain!) The result after blending and straining everything together was a lovely combination of sweet and tart, without being too over the top. This recipe can be pretty flexible, letting you use up whatever fruit you have on hand and making everything as sweet or as tart as you so desire. I used my trusty nut milk bag to strain the chunks from the lemonade, but a regular mesh strainer should do as well.

 

What is stuck in my head now? This ice cream, I’m thinking I need to buy a few cans of coconut milk and give it a vegan makeover, thoughts?

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