Lemon Extract Vs Juice Vs Zest: When To Use Each For Baking

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When life gives you lemons, you could make lemonade — but you could implement those lemons into your baking recipes instead. The only trouble is that it can sometimes be hard to figure out just which part of the lemon to use. It's pretty easy to make lemon extract on your own, and of course the juice and the zest are readily available — so what should you use for a particular recipe? It turns out, there's an expert-approved way to use the different parts of your lemons.

Kat Buckley, also known as The Baking Explorer, is a United Kingdom-based blogger and author of "Bakes that Break the Internet," and she has come through with some advice on when to use lemon extract versus lemon juice — as well as where lemon zest is the best option. To her, lemon extract and lemon juice differ in one critical area: "lemon extract provides a concentrated flavor without extra liquid," she says, adding that "[this] means it's perfect for making a lemon buttercream. Adding lemon juice to a buttercream would require a larger amount of liquid to get a strong lemon flavor, which would affect the consistency." As for zest, Buckley suggests that it's "perfect for using in cake and cupcake batters. You can also mix it into pastry and biscuit bases." There are certainly some mistakes you should avoid when cooking and baking with lemons, but how you use extract, juice, and zest should be clear.

Whether you're using your lemons for making lemon extract, squeezing them for their juice, or utilizing their peels for zest — or some combination of those — you'll want to make sure that you're using your lemons for all the culinary benefits they have to offer. And this means using these different parts to their advantages, as Kat Buckley stated. For example, not only can lemon zest be used in cakes and pastries, but it also serves as a way to liven up homemade lemon pepper seasoning. And where your lemon juice is concerned, you can use its acidity to help balance cakes and other baked goods without imprinting too much of a strong lemony essence.

But no matter how you're using your lemons, you want to make sure that you're not getting any undesirable parts of the lemon involved. Buckley remarks that this is a common pitfall when zesting lemons, as she states that far too often the bitter pith of the lemon is grated into your baked goods along with the aromatic zest. To counter this, she says, "Don't press too hard when using a zester, and make sure not to zest the same section of the fruit repeatedly." And as far as juicing lemons, you can learn how to choose the best lemons at the store to yield the freshest juice in the greatest supply. This way, a few lemons can go a long way in yielding some excellent baked goodies.