Lemon Ice Cream
I’ve been making this lemon ice cream recipe for ten years now, but only recently with Meyer lemons. Originally from Desserts to Die For, I’ve altered this recipe to reduce the amount of butter called for. Yes, that’s right—butter. This is a recipe to die for, after all. With the full four tablespoons of butter, our spoons were left a little greasy, but two tablespoons seems to do the trick.
The resulting ice cream, with enough egg yolks to make French vanilla ice cream jealous, is anything but a sorbet. Smooth and creamy with no harsh acidic overtones, this lemon ice cream is very well balanced. The lemon flavor is derived from a combination of boiled zest syrup and chilled lemon juice. These are added to the custard base immediately prior to freezing.
Ingredients for making Lemon Ice Cream (plenty of egg yolks).
After whipping egg yolks and sugar, slowly add the hot cream while mixing at medium speed.
Heat custard to 185° F or until finger drawn across spoon leaves track.
Pour hot custard through chinois to remove any egg lumps and chill in ice bath.
Use a microplane grater to remove the zest from about four Meyer lemons. Juice all lemons and set juice aside.
Boil zest with sugar and water for five minutes until reduced to syrup.
Blend lemon juice and lemon syrup into chilled custard base and then pour into ice cream machine.
Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.
Once firm, transfer to dedicated container and let ripen in freezer for several hours.
The recipe, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery, can be found on the Lemon Ice Cream recipe page.
