Summer Recipe: Lemon Ice Cream
Nothing says summer like an ice cold batch of homemade ice cream.
When I was growing up I looked forward to July, when my grandparents would make a big batch of vanilla ice cream for my grandpa’s birthday.
I always wanted my own ice cream maker. I didn’t get the huge ice cream maker that they had. Instead, I picked up one of these Cuisinart ice cream makers back in 2012. Perhaps you remember when I was thinking up all sorts of frozen yogurt recipes? I even had a guest spot over on Chobani’s blog.
Here are a few of my previous frozen treat recipes:
- Piña Colada Frozen Yogurt
- Dark Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
- Pumpkin Bourbon Frozen Yogurt
- Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
- Nutella Frozen Yogurt (I officially quit eating Nutella because of this, so you’ve been warned)
- Peanut Butter Cup Frozen Yogurt
Sadly, we haven’t used the ice cream maker for a while.
You might recall that Mark and I lived apart the three years while I was finishing up grad school. During that time most of our appliances were in his parents’ basement. I’ve been dying to use the ice cream maker since we finally moved in together and have all the appliances in one place.
Birthdays call for cake AND ice cream, so I whipped up a couple of batches of ice cream to go with the coconut cake for Mark’s birthday last week.
We decided lemon would be a complementary flavor to coconut. I got to work messing with my favorite ice cream recipe from Alton Brown. The result? Ultra-creamy lemony frozen deliciousness.
Chobani makes a return in this recipe. I added a small container because I remembered using some yogurt in a previous ice cream recipe, letting the mixture sit overnight before freezing it, and then opening up the container to find that the mixture got super thick (likely from yogurt culture growing / multiplying). The ice cream made from that batch was SO creamy. I had lemon Chobani in the fridge, so I thought “what the hell?”
Summer Recipe: Lemon Ice Cream
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 5.3 oz container of Chobani Lemon Blended*
- 2/3 cup sugar
- Juice of one lemon
- Zest of one lemon
- Before beginning the recipe, be sure your ice cream freezer is prepared according to your appliance’s instructions.
- In a large bowl (preferably with a lid), whisk together all ingredients.
- Cover the mix and refrigerate, ideally overnight.**
- After refrigerating, whisk one more time to be sure no separation has occurred.
- Pour into your ice cream freezer and follow your appliance’s instructions for freezing.
- Once frozen, place in a container in the freezer.
Recipe modified from Alton Brown’s Serious Vanilla Ice Cream.
*You can sub out any Greek yogurt here, or omit it altogether. I can’t vouch for the creaminess without the yogurt. If you use an unsweetened yogurt, or omit it altogether add one additional tablespoon of sugar.
**You can skip the refrigeration process and go right to the ice cream maker, but I found that refrigerating overnight results in a much thicker mix.
If you make this recipe, let me know how yours turns out!
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Mine is key lime anything … probably making that next. 🙂
