Lemon gelato is an amazingly refreshing frozen dessert that will tantalize your tastes with fresh lemon flavor and the creamy texture of ice cream made with milk and heavy cream so the flavors shine through.
All you need to make my lemon gelato (which can be made in your ice cream maker) is lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, heavy whipping cream, milk, and a dash of salt. No egg yolks needed!
Gelato isn’t that much different than ice cream, the big difference is that milk is used instead of all cream, which actually makes the flavors of what you’re using stand out even more, and if you find the right balance between cream and milk, you still get that rich creamy texture that Americans have come to love about our ice cream!
What ingredients do I need to make Lemon Gelato?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make lemon gelato. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
*I originally made this gelato with Meyer Lemons so either variety are good.
How do I make Lemon Gelato?
It’s really easy to make my version of Lemon Gelato. All you need are a few simple ingredients to make this gelato / ice cream recipe.
- Add the cream, milk, lemon juice, zest, sugar, and salt together. Using a wire whip, mix until the sugar dissolves and is completely incorporated. (the mixture should thicken some)
- Pour the lemon mixture into a gelato or ice cream maker.
- Allow the mixture to freeze.
- When the gelato mixture has sufficiently frozen, place into a container and allow the lemon gelato to completely freeze.
Can I Use an Ice Cream Maker to Make a Gelato Recipe?
Yes, you can. The difference between the two machines is gelato is churned at a much slower rate than ice cream, incorporating less air and leaving the gelato denser than ice cream.
Of course, if you don’t have a gelato maker you can easily take my recipe for Lemon gelato and use your ice cream maker to make super creamy and delicious ice cream.
So when life hands you lemons, make gelato. Your friends and family will be oh so happy that you did. Just be prepared for all the compliments and requests to make it again and again.
These are the Gelato Makers I recommend
Recipe FAQ’s
Ice cream has a higher butterfat content which masks some of the natural flavors, where the creaminess of the ice cream is more of the star than the added flavor. Italian gelato uses less butterfat and also doesn’t whip the mixture as quickly, adding less air into the gelato. This makes the gelato denser and packs the flavor into each spoonful because of the density.
Five basic ingredients are needed to make gelato. Heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt, and the flavoring you’ll be adding. Fresh fruit is my favorite added flavor when I make gelato, but you can easily make pistachio, chocolate, or any flavor you can imagine.
No, you don’t. You can of course, make a custard-type base for your gelato using eggs, but that will require cooking the custard and allowing it to cool before freezing. The eggs will make the base richer, but eggs are not necessary for amazing gelato.
More Gelato Recipes You’ll Love!
Lemon Gelato
Ingredients
- 1 cup Lemon Juice about 6 lemons
- zest from one lemon very fine
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Using a micro-planer or a very fine grater, zest one Lemon
- Cut lemons in half and juice them, straining out all the seeds.
- Add the cream, milk, lemon juice, zest, sugar and salt together and using a wire whip, mix until the sugar is dissolved and completely incorporated. (the mixture should thicken some)
- Pour the mixture into a gelato or ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Yield will be about 1 quart of lemon gelato
deborah
It looks amazing! I’ll have to give your recipe a try! I love Meyer Lemons!
Rhonda
I confess to loving all things lemony but I am actually in love with Pinterest more! Love your tips about it. I also find Google+ a great place to hang out and share. It seems to have a more ‘professional’ following.
Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb
Hello!
finaly I had the time to pass by your lovely blog!
The gelato looks wonderful. we r mostly used to gelato these days in europe so ice cream is not so much of a trend anymore in middle europe the past 10 years. I have worked in a italian gelateria in my youth and I know how much better the italian ice cream is. unluckily I am not able to enjoy it in india right now, since good ice cream is still difficult to find and a ice creammakers are even more difficult to obtain.
about pinterest,… I must say its the most useful social network right now in the web. totaly user friendly. why it is so well working is I guesse is because of its simplicity and the fact that pictures say a 1000 times more then words. the only problem right now is that there is no proper social pin it button feature for blog pages. I had to insert mine manually into each post after the plugin failed to work.
about google+,… I have been witnessing a growth in this social network, especially in the past 2 months. its for sure more useful then fb to me and I realy need to be more active there too.
My favourite social network is still twitter, though.
and u r right, I always keep an eye on copycats. To me its one of the worst sins and I realy hate to see hard worked material being missused by some noobs.
Hyosun Ro
Hi Chef Dennis – Yes, I am going to love this gelato recipe!! I love gelato and ate it every day during my trip to Italy a few years ago. I make ice cream quite often, but have not tried gelato yet. I just hope next time I go to Costco, there will be these meyer lemons waiting for me. Thank you for the great recipe!
Correen
Dear Chef….I had no idea that gelato would be this easy. In fact, gelato has never passed my lips…ahh! I know, sad indeed. Thanks for the inspiration to get something going with that Costco club pack of Meyer lemons I, too, snagged up the other day. I’ve also taken notes of your online socializing tips…ta!
Chef D
hi Correen
Gelato can be made with eggs also, I just don’t think the results have that intense flavor that you get from a plain milk based mix, and using less cream even makes the flavors more intense…go figure. It’s finding that happy medium with the cream and milk, finding that creamy spot without using too much cream.
Dennis
Mary
This gelato looks fantastic! I wish I’d seen it before I used the last of my meyer lemons. I may have to pick up another bag of them, just to try it. Do you think it would be too strong with regular lemons? Or would simply adjusting the amount be ok?
Second, I’m on Pinterest as a tool for pinning my own personal favorites, but I don’t pin my blog posts or anything like that. You aren’t pinning your own things, right? Just your finds online? I’ve seen a dramatic increase in Pinterest traffic over the past few weeks, from things other people have pinned from my site. The hits have always been there, but lately they are increasing like crazy.
Is there a benefit that I am missing, by not having people follow me on Pinterest? How does having them follow me there, help me as a blogger?
Amy's Cooking Adventures
This looks just lovely–I think I need an ice cream maker for my birthday – or maybe, I’d be making this all the time!
Kim Bee
Yummy meyer lemon recipe. You know me and frozen treats. I need to try making gelato, I bet I would be addicted in no time. Great advice as always. I just can’t bring myself to hit the invite button on the Little Monsters thing no matter how hard I try.
Marsha @ The Harried Cook
Mmmm… the weathers getting warmer here, and this would be so perfect! Thanks for sharing this recipe, Chef Dennis! And thanks, as always, for the great tips! 😉
Meagan Wied
I love gelato and lemons. My mouth started watering immediately.
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious
Great looking gelato, I have a friend who keeps me well stocked on Meyers. I love them! As always great advice for g+
Take care…
Happy When Not Hungry
Wow this looks so refreshing and delicious. YUM!
Anita at Hungry Couple
The gelato looks yummy. Mr. Hungry Couple would be all over that in a heartbeat! On the social media front, I agree with you completely about Pinterest. I just got started and already can’t believe how much traffic has come to my blog from there. Thanks for all the info!
Kristina
mmm, Meyer lemons! I just bought some from Costco also, and made a curd-mousse kinda thing. your gelato sounds terrific (and I pinned it!!)
I am loving pinterest – I have been on for a while, but just recently started using it more, as stumbleupon has changed quite a bit. I am LOVING pinterest as a fun site for myself and as a source for new readers. I will be on the lookout for whole recipes!
Kiri W.
What a lovely, refreshing gelato this must be! 🙂
kenna
I have made this recipe many, many times in the last 4-5 months. Soo easy and sooooo good. All of my friends who have these trees in their yards are keeping me supplied to feed all of our habits. With the end of the growing season coming, I gave a try to a substitute–lemons and regular orange or tangerine in about a 5:1 ration. Not quite the same, but better than nothing. Thanks for the recipe.
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for the feedback Kenna. The same recipe will work well with pureed fruit, I have a few other gelato recipes that are just as easy.