Homemade Lemon Ice Cream – SO Refreshing & No Ice Cream Maker Required

I love the taste of homemade ice cream but I haven’t owned an ice cream maker in years and haven’t felt inclined to buy one. Because we don’t eat ice cream that often, I haven’t wanted to spend the money on a new ice cream maker and then there’s the issue of storing it.

Over the years I’ve experimented with ice cream recipes that don’t require an ice cream maker and while they tasted ok, they just didn’t quite meet my expectations. Until now…

This lemon ice cream is so easy to make, doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, and depending on the price of lemons, is pretty inexpensive. It’s also delicious, refreshing, and super creamy…perfect for summer! And you can make it using only a pan, spoon, and food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, you could try mixing it with a blender or even hand-held mixer.)

I served this for the first time at a ladies brunch I had here at my house and it was a huge hit…as was everything actually.

I served it on top of brownies with a sprig of mint and again, so light, creamy, and refreshing. Of course it tastes great plain too. And serving it up in fun glasses makes it even more “special” when you have guests.

You don’t have to garnish it with mint but it just adds a nice contrast. You could also add just a bit of additional lemon zest too for a pretty topping.

Because I have so much mint growing in my garden, I also sent a pot of it home with each guest.

Later that evening I made little cups of it and had all the kids and adults in the neighborhood try it…it was a huge hit with everyone.

A few days later, I made this again but used limes in place of the lemons. Fabulous! Next time, I’m going to try oranges, which I think will taste pretty darn good too.

For the lime version, we served it with grilled mango and a bit of agave syrup and nuts.

Here’s the recipe…and if you try it, we’d love to hear what you think.

HOMEMADE LEMON ICE CREAM

Freezing Time: 6 hours            Makes: 1 1/2 quarts

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups milk

2 cups half-and-half

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 cup fresh lemon juice

6 drops yellow liquid food coloring

Optional Garnish: fresh mint sprigs

Directions:

Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a 13- x 9-inch pan. Freeze about 2 hours.

Process half of the mixture in a food processor until smooth. Remove from processor. Repeat with remaining mixture. Return all of mixture to pan and freeze 4 more hours or until firm.

(If you do use limes or oranges instead of the lemons, keep the same measurement of juice and sub out the zest with whatever you’re using. I did add drops of green food coloring to the lime version, which is just for color.)