Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Super Meyer Lemon Ice Cream



Meyer lemons were on sale this week at the grocery store so of course I couldn't leave without a bag of 6 or 7 of these beauties! I recently became the proud owner of two Meyer lemon trees so hopefully next year I'll be picking them from my own backyard. In the meantime however, I couldn't resist bringing these home with me. After buying them I had to decide what I wanted to do with them. Oh the possibilities! I came across this article in the LA Times for 100 things to do with Meyer lemons. I'd like to try every single one of them. With my two trees, I just might get the chance! One of the suggestions they listed was for Meyer lemon ice cream. They had a link to a recipe, but I didn't have everything it called for so I decided to look to David Lebovitz, my ice cream guru. He had a recipe for Super Lemon Ice Cream that not only sounded wonderful but was also quite simple to make. So I decided I'd try my Meyer lemons in this recipe. I replaced the regular lemon juice with Meyer lemon juice. Meyer lemons are a little milder than lemons and I wanted the ice cream to have a real lemony punch so I added a bit more zest in mine. I think this ice cream has a great balance of tart and sweet.



Ingredients

3 teaspoons lemon zest (I used a little more than a Tablespoon of Meyer lemon zest)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 pinch salt

Zest lemons directly into food processor. Pour in sugar and process until the sugar is faintly lemon-colored and the zest is finely ground.

Juice the lemons and straining out any seeds. Pour the measured juice into the sugar/zest mixture. Blend until the sugar dissolves.
Add half and half and blend.Chill for about an hour; the product may break up, but just stir it back together. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.

For Easter we had a strawberry and rhubarb sauce to go with our cake. I had a little left over and topped the ice cream with the sauce. The flavors were perfect together.

13 comments:

Coco Cake Land said...

your ice cream cups are so cute. and of course this ice cream looks super scrumptious...!

apparentlyjessy said...

Yum, I love the tartness of lemon ice cream, yours looks tasty, beautiful photos too! :)

Cynthia said...

Oh yes, you can tell the weather is warming up in the US :)

Kelly said...

Oh yum!! My cousin has a meyer lemon tree in her back yard and I am going to forward this to her. She will love it!!

Anonymous said...

Meyer lemons! Love 'em!

Anonymous said...

Meyer Lemon ice cream sounds heavenly and perfect with the rhubarb sauce!

Aimée said...

That looks SO perfect! We just bought a chest freezer and I'm so excited about making ice cream all summer long!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

I'd love to be able to buy Meyer lemon here... This ice cream looks irresistible!

Cheers,

Rosa

grace said...

i've never had lemon ice cream. lemon gelato, yes. lemon sorbet, yes. never lemon ice cream. now i want some, but only with some of that sauce. :)

Elyse said...

Meyer lemon ice cream sounds fantastic. I want some! Now, I just need my meyer lemons to go on sale. The ice cream looks great.

David said...

Glad you liked it..I love Meyer lemons! xx

Melanie said...

One of my favorite ice creams--I also like black raspberry ice cream too!!Let's not forget coffee ice cream too. I love the glass ice cream cups!!!

putra said...

thanks for share your recipe, i like it.