This lemon ice cream recipe is made with just 3 simple ingredients and requires less than 15 minutes of hands-on prep. Super easy and delicious!
What inspired this lemon ice cream recipe?
Ice cream is an essential part of a trip to Italy, at least for the trips we take. This fluffy Italian-style ice cream is so flavorful it’s hard to pass up, especially when there’s a shop around every corner. On our recent trip to Rome, we spent an afternoon visiting five different ice cream parlors to taste the flavors (I mean, we had to figure out which one was the best!).
I usually go for chocolate flavors when given a choice, but surprisingly, Alex and I found out that our favorite ice cream wasn’t rich chocolate, it was lemon. And it’s not just any lemon ice cream. It’s a tangy, intense lemon that puckers the lips, with just the right amount of sweetness that doesn’t taste a bit tart. It was so intense and refreshing that we ordered it many times.
Of course, there’s nothing like Italian gelato made in Italy, but this is our way of making lemon ice cream at home. With only three ingredients, it’s a simple concept but takes time to put together (mostly manually). It’s actually more of a fruit and water sorbet, like most fruit-flavored ice creams made in Italy. Interestingly, we found that it was best prepared with milk, giving it a slightly creamy texture.
Give it a try and let us know if you’re transported to Italy or have a favorite ice cream flavor or recipe!
How to make Lemon Ice Cream
This lemon ice cream recipe is ridiculously simple, but that’s what makes it so wonderful! For this homemade ice cream you need fresh lemons, 2% milk and white sugar. First you need to heat the milk and sugar on the stove until the sugar dissolves. Then stir in the lemon juice and place in the fridge for at least three hours.
Once cool, stir the mixture in an ice cream maker (read the manufacturer’s instructions for this part). Serve the lemon ice cream immediately for a soft consistency. Or freeze it for a few hours to harden it up a bit. Freezing the ice cream overnight will make it rock hard, but you can solve this problem by running it in a food processor again!
Looking for more frozen desserts?
Aside from this lemon ice cream recipe, here are our favorite frozen desserts at A Couple Cooks:
This recipe is…
This lemon ice cream is vegetarian and gluten-free.
The description
This lemon ice cream recipe is made with just 3 simple ingredients and requires less than 15 minutes of hands-on prep. Super easy and delicious!
- 6 at Seven Lemons (enough for 1½ cups lemon juice)
- 1½ cups 2% milk
- ¾ cup White sugar
- In a medium saucepan, combine 1 ½ cups milk and ¾ cup sugar. Heat over medium-high heat until sugar completely dissolves when stirred; not cook. Pour into a bowl and bring to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, squeeze out enough juice for 1 ½ cups of lemon juice (about 6 lemons). Stir the lemon juice into the milk mixture, then place in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours.
- Once the mixture has cooled, stir it in an ice cream maker. Serve immediately for a soft texture or freeze an additional 2 hours for a firmer texture. (Freezing overnight will make the ice hard as rock; if this happens, you can soften it again by running it through a food processor.)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Frozen
- Kitchen: Italian
Keywords: Lemon ice cream, homemade ice cream
