Bet you’ve never had Lemon Ice Cream . . .  Not lemon sorbet, or lemon sherbet, or lemon granita or lemon frozen yogurt, but real lemon ice cream—creamy, rich, sweet, intense lemon ice cream. Intrigued? Tempted? I hope so, because I have a simple, oh-so-good recipe for you.  You do have an ice cream maker, right?

 I use a ‘frozen bowl’ ice cream maker, which seem to be everywhere for $40-$50 now, but sometimes you can get lucky. This weekend my friend bought one at a garage sale for $5, and I saw one at Savers for $12.99 🙂

Homemade ice cream is rich and creamy. Homemade Lemon Ice Cream is no exception.  Serve small scoops with an option for seconds, of course 🙂  This recipe is not custard based, so no eggs and no stovetop cooking prior to freezing. This recipe makes a quart of ice cream, richer and more filling than even the most premium commercial ice creams.  One quart of this ice cream will serve as many people as a half gallon of that store bought stuff.

I like to serve this ice cream plain, but it’s also good on fruit pies, fruit crisps and cobblers.

This recipe was first published in Gourmet Magazine (no longer in publication) in 1999.  I’ve been making it since May 25, 2003.  Yes, I marked the date on my copy of the recipe, with this note, “Delicious and simple!”  “Simple” was written in caps and underlined twice!

Lemon Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large lemon, all of the zest plus ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 cup well chilled heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

1. With a vegetable peeler or microplane remove the zest from the lemon, do NOT include any of that bitter white pith in with the zest.  
2. Put the sugar and the lemon zest in a food processor or blender and whirl until the sugar is finely ground and the lemon zest has been incorporated into the sugar.
3. Add in the milk and the cream—on occasion I have used 2 cups half-and-half instead of the milk and cream mixture.
4. Blend just to combine.  
5. Stir in ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice.  
6. Process in ice cream maker for about 20 minutes.  Place soft ice cream in a freezer safe bowl, and set in freezer to harden up a bit—a few hours.  

The ice cream will keep at least a week, if not more, in the freezer, but I doubt you will have to test the outer time limits 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!