Lemon Ice Cream

I think it would be safe to say that almost everyone enjoys a delicious frozen treat, especially ice cream.

However, I must warn that there are some “frozen desserts” sold in supermarkets that are being disguised as the “real thing.”

Hopefully, you will only be fooled once and take time to read the packaging very carefully before your next purchase. These impostors wear ice cream packaging but upon closer observation one will note the fancy letters on the package that read “frozen dessert” in other words “not ice cream”

Life is too short to deprive yourself of real ice cream. In my opinion it would be better to enjoy one serving of real ice cream than countless portions of a mixture of unknown ingredients.

I’ve made several kinds of frozen treats including cantaloupe sorbet, raspberry semifreddo, lemon, peach and vanilla ice cream, granita and various flavours of tortoni using only all natural ingredients.

Recipes requiring fruit like cantaloupe or peaches are best made when the fruit is in season and the delicious flavours are at their peak.

I thought it wise to do a few posts on frozen treats before the short Canadian summer falls into winter again. However, many of these wonderful treats can be made year round.
I don’t think I remember anything as delicious or exciting as my first taste of a lemon flavoured frozen treat. It didn’t have a trace of cream in it so technically it was not ice cream and perhaps better described as an ice or granita.

After immigrating to Canada in the early 1950’s, our family lived in a rented flat above a furniture store on College Street in Toronto. Even though I was a very young girl at the time some vivid and wonderful memories of our years spent there will always remain. One particular memory came back to my mind as I was preparing this post.

It was a cold winter day and the snow had begun to fall in flakes of such an enormous size unlike I had never seen before.

I remember my mother quickly grabbing a couple of large bowls from the cupboard and taking us out onto the small wooden porch on the back side of the flat. There she placed the bowls on top of the ledge and we watched them quickly fill up with the most beautiful flakes of snow we had ever seen.

We then followed her to the tiny kitchen where she poured a mixture of fresh lemon juice and sugar all over the snow. In those days life just didn’t get any better than that!

Due to present day environmental concerns I don’t suggest you try this recipe. Instead, I have posted the recipe for a tangy refreshing Lemon Ice Cream that everyone enjoys and can’t believe doesn’t require an ice cream machine to make.

Lemon Ice Cream

1 1/4 cups 35% cream (unwhipped)
1 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
150 ml fresh squeezed lemon juice (approximately juice of 3 lemons)
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

1. In a medium size bowl stir well cream, milk and sugar.
2. Stir in the grated lemon peel.
3. Cover and freeze at least 5 hours or overnight.
4. Soften slightly and beat with electric mixer while gradually adding in the lemon juice.
5. Beat until light and fluffy scraping bowl often.
6. Spoon mixture into a chilled container, cover and return to freezer.
7. Freeze at least 3 hours before serving.

Notes Tips and Suggestions

• If mixture is frozen overnight it will be very hard. For quicker softening, break mixture up into chunks with a knife or spoon and soften slightly. Then proceed to beat and add lemon juice as above.
• Limes also work well in this recipe as well as a combination of lemons and limes.
• The wonderful lemon flavour of this ice cream is complimented when topped with a handful of raspberries or blueberries.
• Time to get out that ice cream scoop!