Welcome to day 4 of Lemon week here at LiveLovePasta! I am really excited about today’s post for a few reasons:
- Lemon, yum!
- I used our new ice cream maker successfully for the first time.
- Gelato! Lemon + Gelato = Best food ever!
For awhile now I have been seeing recipes for homemade ice cream and I had 2 thoughts. The first was: I must buy an ice cream maker right this minute! The second was ohmygod, I’m going to get so fat! My mom spoils us, and luckily for us, she bought us a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker that attaches to our Kitchen Aid stand mixer. We tried to make ice cream right away. Unfortunately for us (and all the eggs we wasted) it was a fail x2. On the first try we ended up with scrambled eggs. The second time the ice cream never hardened enough. We considered returning it, but decided to give it one last try. We turned the freezer on high this time and the gelato turned out great!
I went to Italy for the first time when I was 20 years old. I saw a lot of historic sites, but mostly I remember the gelato. It is all I could think of when I got home. It seems to me that gelato has gotten more popular in the U.S. recently and I see new gelato places popping up all the time. None of them equal the gelato that I had in Italy though. Seriously, if you haven’t been to Italy you should go, even if it is just for the gelato. I can’t say enough about the gelato in Italy! This lemon gelato recipe is super good, if you close your eyes and imagine the Colosseo, it is almost like you are there.
Here is what you’ll need
Add heavy cream to a bowl
Add the half and half
Add the sugar
Mix with a hand mixer
Add vanilla
Zest your lemons
Juice the lemons
Add the zest to the cream mixture
Now add the lemon juice and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Mix on low speed for 15-20 minutes
Transfer to a bowl and freeze overnight if you can wait!!
Eat your gelato while imagining being in Italy!
- 1½ cups heavy cream
- 1½ cups half and half
- 1½ cups sugar, granulated
- ¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- In a bowl, using a hand mixer combine creams and sugar until sugar dissolves.
- Stir in vanilla, lemon juice and zest.
- Refrigerate the mixture for at least 2 hours.
- Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and allow it to freeze.
- Follow manufacturer’s instructions. My Kitchen Aid says to mix on low speed for 15-20 minutes.
- For best results freeze overnight.
