Lemon Custard Ice Cream
Lemon lovers rejoice with this creamy, dense, smooth and rich, custard based ice cream. Simple fresh ingredients. You'll need an ice cream maker. If you're making this in spring, try it with Meyer lemons if you can find them.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 432kcal
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest use a microplane zester
- ⅔ cup sugar or ¾ cup powdered allulose for sugar-free, see note below.
- 5 large egg yolks
- ⅔ cup lemon juice 3 large lemons
- pinch salt
Instructions
Set up
- Create an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water ¾ full and set aside to cool ice cream base. Set a medium bowl into the ice and place a sieve on top.
Prep lemons
- Zest and juice lemons. You need ⅔ cup of strained juice and about 2 tablespoons of lemon zest.
Cook the custard base
- Pour cream and milk into a medium saucepan (about 3 quarts) and add lemon zest. Turn heat to low and allow the zest to infuse the dairy while you work on the eggs and sugar.
- Whisk sugar and yolks together in a medium bowl until thick and smooth.
- Bring the dairy to just under a simmer with little bubbles starting at the edges. Get the dairy hot but don't boil it. Slowly add a ¼ cup of the hot dairy to the yolks and whisk until smooth. Do this 3-4 times to “temper” the eggs so they do not scramble when you add them into the pan to cook the custard.
- Add the egg-sugar-dairy mixture back into the pan over medium-low heat and whisk until smooth. Cook, stirring continually. until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon when you draw a line through it with your finger, about 5 minutes. Watch the heat and turn down if needed. You don't want scrambled eggs. Turn off heat. Stir in lemon juice and salt.
Strain the custard base
- Pour the liquid custard through the sieve into the medium bowl to catch any egg bits and lemon zest. Stir for 5 minutes until the temperature of the liquid custard drops to 70°F or under so it is safe to put in the refrigerator for full chilling.
Chill the custard base fully
- Cover the custard and place in the refrigerator for a few hours until it gets very cold, about 2 hours. When cold, churn in your ice cream maker. When done, scoop into an ice cream container, cover and freeze for several hours.
Notes
The colder the ice cream base is, the faster it will freeze in your ice cream maker.
As we eat lower carb, I now make this delicious lemon ice cream with powdered allulose. It sweetens without sugar. Although it is a natural sugar, the body does not metabolize it, so no net carbs.
If you use powdered allulose, each serving of lemon custard ice cream provides 6.5 grams of carbs, versus 29 grams of carb for sugar.
Nutrition
Calories: 432kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 248mg | Sodium: 44mg | Potassium: 183mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 1439IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 125mg | Iron: 1mg