August 2, 2012

The Best Homemade Lemon Ice Cream!

This recipe (adapted from Gourmet) forms part of another – Frozen Lemon Gingersnap Pie – which I will share with you in another post. There’s something so quintessentially summer whenever lemons are mentioned in a recipe, making any day of the year sunny. Flavored shaved ice (precursor to ice cream) has been used for thousands of years. In China, a frozen mixture of milk and rice was used as far back as 200 BC (ref: BBC, October 26, 2009). Roman Emperor Nero had ice brought down from the mountains and combined it with fruit. Arabs used milk rather than fruit juices in their ice cream. In the 10th century ice cream was being made throughout the Arab cities. They used milk or cream and sometimes yogurt flavored with rose water, dried fruits and nuts.

I love trying different flavors but this lemon ice cream has to be the best one I have savored in a very long time.

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Bring cream, milk, sugar, zest, and salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Whisk yolks in a bowl until blended, then add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer custard back to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 175 to 180°F on thermometer, 3 to 5 minutes (do not let boil).

Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into cleaned bowl, then stir in lemon juice. Cool custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then chill, its surface covered with a round of wax paper, until cold, about 3 hours. Freeze custard in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

The Culinary Chase’s Note:

This was so delicious and I didn’t bother straining the custard…too good to lose the lemon zest. Summer pleasures. Enjoy!

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