Homemade Lemon Ice Cream

Lately, I've been making a lot of meals that I've already blogged about.  Things that are easy to prepare in the summer heat.

Like BLT/Chicken salad .

And Barbecued Sirloin Tips and Pasta Salad .

But there have been a few minor side trips, one of which entailed pulling out the ice cream maker I haven't used in almost two years.

Hello, old friend!!

I don't know why I didn't make ice cream last summer.  I guess I was just lazy.  Because this is probably the easiest-to-use ice cream maker in existence. 

I speak from experience.  I used to have a much larger ice cream maker, that had lots of complicated parts, and then when I finally figured out how to put the thing together, operating it required lots of salt and ice cubes.  As in, surround the churning tub with layers of salt and ice cubes, and be sure to keep an eye on it because the ice will melt and you will have to add more.  It was a mess.  Clean up was not fun.

I used it quite a bit when my kids were younger and making ice cream with them was a "fun thing to do."  Moms of young children are always looking for "fun things to do" that take up lots of what seemed like endless free time.

And then the kids got older and not only was there a lot less free time, but using and cleaning the inconvenient ice cream maker was no longer fun!  At least not in our house.

This ice cream maker does not require salt or ice cubes.  There are only four parts to it: the motorized bottom, the tub, the paddle and the cover.  Well, I guess there's five if you count the extra tub that it came with.

All you do is keep one tub in the freezer at all times so that the magical filling that is sealed inside is frozen and ready to go on a moment's notice. 

The tub I used today has been sitting in my freezer (my basement freezer, where I store all the overflow that doesn't fit in my kitchen freezer) for two years.  It was beyond ready.

I don't have a playlist for you today, because the ice cream machine is so loud that after I combined the ingredients, poured them in and turned the machine on, all the music was drowned out.  Okay, I did listen to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" while I prepped the lemon and mixed it into the other three ingredients.  So consider this recipe a one-song-on-the-playlist kind of recipe.

Lemon Ice Cream

• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

Gather your ingredients.  Oops, forgot to take a picture.  Pretend you are looking at milk, cream, sugar and lemons.

 

Prep the lemons.  Juice them.........

........and zest them.  (I needed two lemons to get the 6 tablespoons of juice.  You can obtain enough zest from only 1 lemon half, however)

    

Whisk all of the ingredients together, until the sugar has dissolved (about 1 minute).

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.  My manufacturer's directions are to make sure the tub is frozen ahead of time, and to turn the machine on (for about 30 minutes). 

 

Thirty minutes later, this is what it looked like.

I then transferred it to a freezer-safe container so it could continue to freeze until firm.  (About two hours.)

 

Don't be fooled by this boring picture.

This ice cream is a perfect creamy-lemony-dreamy-heavenly treat on a hot day.

Enjoy!