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This light and refreshing Lemon Ice Cream is perfect enjoyed by itself or use it to top your favorite fruit crisp or cobbler for an amazing flavor twist.
Who else is a lemon lover! It’s my favorite and I’ll even pick it over chocolate. Some of my favorite lemon desserts include Lemon Angel Pie, Lemon Cheesecake Bars and these delicious Lemon Oatmeal Cookies.
I am a huge ice cream fan. Usually my dessert of choice.
I love to make homemade ice cream in the summer but I certainly don’t limit my ice cream making to the summer months. It’s pretty much a year round activity at our house.
As you know one of my other loves is lemon so coming up with the perfect lemon ice cream was a pretty big priority for me. I think I may have found it.
The perfect lemon ice cream needs to have just the right amount of lemon. Not too tart, not too sweet, just right, and this one is just that.
How to Make Lemon Ice Cream
- The base for this ice cream is cooked because there are eggs in the recipe so you will need to plan ahead a little bit.
- Combine the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest and one cup of milk. Cook over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. After cooking the mixture you may want to pour it through a strainer to remove the lemon rind and any pieces of egg that might not have gotten mixed in. There are times when I don’t do this though and my ice cream always turns out great.
- After straining put it in the refrigerator to chill.
- I always use fresh squeeze lemon juice for the best flavor.
- Â After it has chilled, just process according to the directions of your ice cream maker.
- I use a Cuisinart 2 qt. ice cream maker. I then transfer the ice cream into this insulated ice cream container to let the ice cream harden up. For photo purposes I used an old bread pan above!
I love my ice cream just about any way but I am particularly fond of it on a cone!
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
For other yummy flavors of ice cream try these:
- Key Lime Pie Ice Cream
- Homemade Vanilla and Cookies & Cream Ice Cream
- Andes Mint Ice Cream
- Malted Milk Ball Ice Cream
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Did you know I wrote a cookbook? Check out the Holiday Slow Cooker Cookbook for 100 delicious recipes.
Lemon Ice Cream Recipe
Lemon Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a pan mix together zest, juice, sugar and eggs.
- Add in 1 cup whole milk and vanilla.
- Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a simmer.
- Strain through a sieve to remove zest if desired..
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.
- Add in whipping cream and freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.
Tips & Notes:
Recommended Products
Nutrition Facts:
Originally posted July 3, 2013
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Jen says
Thanks so much for this recipe. I’m overwhelmed with lemons right now so made this ice cream and it is amazing!
Cath says
Awesome recipe! I am tasting the delicious end result as I type this comment. I also almost doubled the amount.
My variation was to substitute sugar with honey and maple syrup, used exclusively heavy 45% cream and added 5 more egg yolks to 3 whole eggs. I also left the zest and used 1 cup of lemon juice.
This is the best lemon ice cream I ever tasted in my life!
Thanks for this super recipe.
Madeline Jones says
Leigh, this recipe is the boom!!!!!! It was delicious. This was my first time making homemade ice cream with my new Cuisinart 2-quart Pure Indulgence ice cream maker. Also, it was my first time eating lemon ice cream. I made it at the request of my husband who had not had it since his childhood. It goes very well with 7-up pound cake. Thank you for sharing. I plan to make it on a regular basis in the summer.
Leigh Anne says
So glad you loved it too! It would be perfect with cake. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it.
Rosemary says
Will this work just putting into a container in the freezer and stirring every thirty minutes? Also do you think it would work with lime juice? If not I totally understand 🙂
Leigh Anne says
Rosemary, I think it would totally work with lime juice and be delicious. As far as stirring every thirty minutes. It might work but you would get a different consistency.
Nancy Pecor says
We made it last night in our old hand crank ice cream freezer. Yum! It was a big hit, we should have doubled the batch! 5 people all gone…
I will make this again. But hand cranking is hard work, everyone had a turn We used one regular lemon and one Meyer, tasted great!
Leigh Anne says
Nancy, I love making ice cream in an old fashioned hand crank. I think it tastes better!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.