Lemon or Lime Ice Cream
- Total Time
- 25 minutes, plus several hours’ cooling, chilling and freezing
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Zest of 4 lemons or limes, plus juice of 1 lemon or lime
- ⅔cup sugar
- 2cups heavy cream
- 1cup whole milk
- ⅛teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6large egg yolks
Preparation
- Step 1
In a food processor, pulse together zest of 3 lemons or limes with granulated sugar until smooth and brightly colored.
- Step 2
In a small pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, citrus sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot cream into the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream.
- Step 3
Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from heat and allow custard to steep for 30 minutes.
- Step 4
Stir in the juice and zest of the remaining lemon or lime. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Step 5
Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed.
Private Notes
Comments
Lemon ice cream is one of my favorite flavors--and this is my go to recipe. The only change is to use the lemon juice from ALL FOUR lemons, which makes the custard tangy and delicious. If you follow the recipe and use juice from only one lemon, the custard will be fragrant but lacking. Highly recommended!
agreed, mine needed the juice of 4 limes, 1 wasn't enough. Also, added some graham cracker crumbs, after the churning, for a Key Lime Pie flavor.
I just made this with the juice of 1 1/2 limes (they were very juicy) and it turned out great! My only problem was that our Cuisinart ice cream maker had difficulty freezing it (even to soft-serve consistency). I've used the machine before but never with a base with SO many yolks - maybe that was the problem? Anyway, would recommend this if you have a high-end ice-cream maker!
Gosh, I don't know why you'd want to strain out the zest, but that's just me. Used 3 limes plus zest, and it was yummy!!
The egg flavor was a bit too prominent. I think if I make this again I would cut back on the egg yolk.
For Chris S, who asked about what went wrong: perhaps the custard never reached 170*F, or you were expecting something thicker. This will not be really thick; instead, the texture will be more like the difference between water and oil. If you stir constantly while it’s cooking you’ll notice a gradual difference as it heats. If you don’t have a thermometer, the signs to look for are this subtle thickening, a noticeable amount of steam rising, and it will cling to a wooden (not silicone) spoon.
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