The Gift of Liquid Gold

The Gift of Liquid Gold

Recipe Below!

This liquid gold has a story!

In our poorer times some years back now, my Liquid Gold was the one treat that I loved to make at Christmas time. I could only make it at Christmas time if I had saved enough money to buy the extra sugar. Times were very hard back then and in most cases a small treat such as a couple of pots of homemade Lemon Honey, which we always called Liquid Gold, would be all we could have for a Christmas treat.

To us in those times, it gave us the feeling of living the high life, of renewed hope.

You might all find this a little odd but when you have children and the grandchildren too, to raise and rent to pay and no money coming in, a small treat like this wonderful Liquid Gold, really was very special. It only takes the smallest gesture to bring back hope for a better future.

I know that had we not had our own cows and made our own butter and also the chocks (chickens to the uninitiated) to lay the eggs for us then even this one small treat would still have not been possible.

It became something that the family really looked forward to and being able to make a few pots of this liquid gold at Christmas time just seemed to wash all our worries away, for a time at least.

I knew that as long as I could keep up the tradition of making Liquid Gold for Christmas that the next year would not be so hard to take and that somehow we would cope okay and make it through.

And we did, with a lot of hard work and determination!

When we have plenty and we are doing well, we can so easily forget about the people around us that do not have it so lucky. Maybe some have never struggled, so we do not know what it is like to wake up every single morning, knowing that you have to go hungry again so that your children can at least have one meal that day. You spend your days hoping that today will be the day that a job will come up and you can work again. This is what reality is for a lot of people.

My dear reader’s, whether you are able to accept that people around us are struggling in silence or not is entirely up to you. The fact is that our communities are full of these silent sufferers and in most cases it is all through no fault of their own.  The holiday season sees the highest number of suicides than at any other time of the year.

This is happening every week of every year and right in our very own communities. While we may sit down to a nice feast at Christmas, many people and families have nothing to put on their tables except maybe a few slices of stale bread.  Some won’t even have a table to sit at or a bed to lie down on at nights. And many will only have the cold pavement or a doorway as their home at nights.

This I know because we were in that really bad place once and although people around us knew how bad things were for us, it was just easier for them to close their eyes and ignore us, than it was to lend a helping hand. Sadly people are still doing this even today.

It is far easier to ignore that such a situation could even exist, than it is to step up and make someone’s life a little nicer, a little better, even if it is just for one day.

I vowed many years that I would strive not to become like those people and that is why we do our best to make a few people’s lives better throughout the year and at Christmastime I still make my little pots of liquid gold and give them to people in need around us.

I would like to challenge all my reader’s to please make the effort to help even just one other person this Christmas. It might be an elderly person that is in a nursing home and has no family left to visit them or it could be volunteering at a local shelter.

Many soup kitchens put on a special Christmas dinner in the larger locations and maybe a few could go and help there for a few hours. The operators are always thankful for any help that they can get. The looks of gratitude on the faces of the homeless and destitute that you would serve the food too, will more than make up for the few hours you give to do this.

Please take it from one that knows!

Even the smallest gesture can mean the difference between life and death to a person in dire need. Sometimes all they want is for someone to care and that can be as simple as a hug.

Can you meet that challenge this Christmas? I know that you all can and will because this is what we do when there are people in need, right?

Now I would love to share my very old fashioned Liquid Gold recipe with you all. Maybe you can make this a tradition that you also do each year to brighten up someone else’s life.

Lemons are always in plentiful supply at this time of the year in the land of Down Under. For those living in the northern parts of the world, maybe you were able to store some lemons in the fridge before the really cold weather hit.

If you grow your own lemons, can make your own butter and have chocks laying eggs for you then this recipe is very economical to make, because all you need to buy is the sugar. That’s right! It only has 4 ingredients to it

Now onto the recipe:

KB’s Old-Fashioned Liquid Gold (Lemon Honey)

This recipe will make 4 x 250 ml pots or 7 x 150 ml pots if you don’t fill them quite to the top and leave a little bit more head room than normal.

Spread this liquid gold on toast or scones. Use it instead of jam between sponge cakes and top with whipped cream for a very special dessert or mix a little into whipped cream and use this to fill crepes for an awesome and quick dessert.

This can also be used as a filling for open mini tarts which go wonderfully with a nice cup of coffee or you can dress them up and put meringue on top for a special afternoon tea, or bridal shower etc.

125 gm butter

2 cups white sugar

4 lemons, grate the zest finely making sure not to get the white pith as that is bitter, and squeeze the juice and reserve

4 well beaten eggs

Place the butter in a large bowl over a pan of boiling water.

When the butter has fully melted add the sugar and lemon juice and stir until the sugar has fully dissolved.

Mix the lemon zest into the beaten eggs.

Now add this mixture to the bowl over the boiling water, ensuring that you stir constantly to combine all the ingredients and to also prevent the eggs from scrambling. 

Cook, stirring the mixture periodically until thick and creamy.

DO NOT leave unattended for too long. This process will take between 15 and 40 minutes depending on your elevation and how thick you want the gold to be. 

The best way to fill the jars is to transfer the Liquid Gold to a good pouring jug to prevent a mess.

Pour into sterilised jars and seal immediately with sterilised lids. 

When cold store the jars in the refrigerator.

KB’s Notes:

Unopened these will keep perfectly well in the fridge for a good 6 – 12 months. Once opened though, they will need to be used within a month to 6 weeks but must always remain refrigerated.

I am sure that you will love this recipe so much that they will not stay in your refrigerator for very long at all.

If you have free range chocks then your liquid gold will be almost orange in colour as it takes on the colour of the yolks.

You can also make this with half lemons and half small oranges and I have even made a passionfruit flavoured liquid gold using 8 passionfruit in place of the lemons. However this will not keep for as long as the lemon version will, as there is no acid in the mix to help preserve it.

Make a double batch and give some to a shelter, food bank or just friends that might be down on their luck and spread a little liquid gold around to brighten someone else’s day in your community this Christmas.

Please enjoy!

From myself and everyone at the Australian Homesteading Academy, I would like to wish you all a very

© KB Barnes

 

Please do share what special treats you make for your family at Christmas time in the comments section below, we would love to read all about them.