Homemade Lemon Ice Cream

The sun has been pounding down on us for the last couple of days. Finally, the rain seems to have given up the fight and allowed summer to begin. Hopefully this lasts more than a week - you never know around here.

Our little garden has given me hope that this is, officially, the start of warm weather. Yesterday I peeked out our window and saw an electric yellow zucchini flower bursting out from underneath one of our plants. This made me extremely happy - not just because it meant we would have more summer squash than I will know what to do with, but because I'd like to think these warm, sunny flowers are telling me that only summer days lay ahead.

The only downside of the summer sun is the tropical climate it causes inside our apartment. About half of our walls are windows, and they always seem to catch the morning and afternoon sun. If we don't close all the blinds in the house, our living room turns into a sauna by noon. This is not good - especially when I want to experiment with new cake or cookies recipes in our own kitchen. Putting the oven on is a sin during this time of year - once it's on, you will not be able to cool down for the rest of the day.

This means that I'll have to look for different recipes. Recipes that don't require the oven. Recipes that create tasty treats that help cool the summer heat.



Ice cream! Of course!


We don't have many fancy kitchen contraptions in our home. We have a bread maker - we got it for fifteen bucks from the movie studio garage sale and it hasn't worked right since we got it. I guess thats what we get for buying a prop from Smallville. I'm pretty sure we have a pasta making hanging around as well - but, lets face it, making pasta is a bit of a pain. Especially when we can get fresh pasta from the markets just north of us. Plus, I'm sure the little Italian grandmothers making it know much more about pasta than I ever will. Having an ice cream machine is a bit verboden - either we'll never use it and end up tossing it in back of the closet with the bread machine, or we'll overuse it. And get fat.

The summer heat was so blinding that it convinced me that making ice cream, maybe just this once, would be a good idea. Even without an ice cream machine. I looked up different techniques and settled on combining a few different ones. Yes, it took about 3 or 4 hours - but the end result was amazing. Now I'm convinced that homemade ice cream is absolutely worth the effort and time.




Homemade Lemon Ice Cream
recipe adapted from Not So Humble Pie

2 cups of whipping/whole cream (the 500mL carton will do)
1 cup of sugar
2 lemons worth of zest (about 1/4 cup)
4 lemons worth of juice (about 1/2 cup)

1) In a metal bowl, pour in the cream and sugar. Pour in the zest and lemon juice while whisking slowly. Whisk until all the sugar has disintegrated. Place in the fridge to chill for at least one hour.

2) After your cream has fully chilled, place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

3) Take the bowl out and scrape the sides with a spatula. Mix the cream with a hand mixer for a minute or two and return to the freezer for 40 minutes.

4) Repeat step three for three cycles. After your final 40 minutes, you may take the ice cream out every 30 minutes and hand mix with a spatula or spoon. Do this until frozen, about 3 to 4 hours.




no ice cream machine? no excuse!