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*I originally made this gelato with Meyer Lemons so either variety are good.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
fatpiginthemarket
Chef Dennis…you rock. I’ve been trying to figure out Pinterest and you just gave me some clarity and direction. G+ was next on my list of Things I Need to Google A Bunch to Understand. Thank you for sharing your knowledge…again. p.s. Meyer Lemon Gelato…I’m in!
Chef D
I’m glad I could help, if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask!
The Mom Chef ~ Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time
Oh my, that gelato looks amazing. I adore citrus…anything. This is definitely joining the ‘to-make’ list. Looks like I need to pin it. 🙂
Chef D
You are too kind!
Kimby
Chef Dennis, your gelato photo was like a breath of Spring this morning! Reminded me of the color of pale daffodils… 🙂 Thanks for the on-line info, too — your research and opinions are greatly respected and appreciated!
Chef D
what a wonderful comparison, thank you!
Tiffany
This gelato is making me smile! And thanks for the advice! 😀
Dara
Just found this recipe via your post on Google+. Pinterest is amazing. I encourage everyone to get on board. Some early adopters have thousands of followers and it is such a simple and organic way to bring in traffic. Unlike other sites, I have also noticed that Pinterest is bringing me new FB and twitter followers as well.
Dennis – do you know anything about Stumbleupon? Can we discuss this next. I’m getting a lot of traffic from it and can’t figure it out.
Fabulous gelato!
Connie
Hey Chef!
I am a new blogger and am hooked. Love this gelato recipe. My son and I are going to make it. Thanks for all the wonderful advice about Pinterest and Google+. I have signed up on both but need to actually get stuff up. I can’t wait to see your cooking classes on Google+. You blog is always a treat.
Cassie
The gelato sounds fabulous, I love gelato but have never thought about making it at home! Pinterest is very quickly becoming my #1 traffic source. You are right too, it’s so easy!
Chef D
hi Candy
the best advice on using google+ is to post something at once a day of your own work, and repost others work that you find interesting, maybe 2-3 a day. the biggest mistake I see is people don’t fill out their profile, and don’t post regularly, the other problem is that others flood your stream with too many posts, and they get themselves ignored very quickly! It’s like with your blog, people expect consistency and thats how you create a following. Remember all your old posts are new to these people too, so use them as fillers on off days from your posting schedule.
Dennis
Mari @ Mari's Cakes
A marvelous dessert! I am a fan of your gelatos. This is a must try for me and I am so sure I will prepare it many times more in the future 🙂 Thank you for all your info in Ask Chef Dennis section.
Have a wonderful day!
Jill @ MadAboutMacarons
There’s that Meyer word again. I’m going potty trying to find them here. Love creamy lemon ice creams (I’ve never liked lemon sorbet, isn’t that weird?) and this one looks fabulous. Love your tips – funnily enough, I’ve started using Pinterest but not for food. It’s helping on ideas on our house project and is so much easier just having all the photos in one place. Great tips as ever, Dennis;
Liz
I always love your hints and tips, Dennis…I learn something each time I visit. Plus I get to gawk at your fabulous gelato!
Emily @ Life on Food
I have this goal of having a Lemon Meyer tree once I own a home. Isn’t that a marvelous idea. Gelato is definitely a favorite in my house. Such rich flavor it is so good all on its own.
Tina@flourtrader
Well I have found out that you just can’t buy 1 meyer lemon around here-you will have to buy a bag. That does have a way of getting you inspired on the many wonderful things you can make. I am sure I will not have any problem using them up! This gelato looks like a delicious treat-so this is well worth putting on the list!
Thanks for all the information here about the move of the social media. Also, I wanted to mention the benefits of unique recipe names-you sure can find out just where these posts are going. You can easily search on something with a unique name and see links or pins right away because most likely there is no other listing by that name, but searching on chocolate brownies to see where your post has gone does not really give you any help because their are tons of posts with that subject.
Alyssa
I’ve never had a meyer lemon, let alone been lucky enough to see them in the store. However, I’m sure your gelato is delicious! Very interesting point about pinterest. I find I have a hard time truely seeing what pictures of mine have been pinned.
Another question: I’ve just moved to a self-hosted wp blog and I’m trying to figure out if google analytics is worth trying. Is it much different from the stat summaries that wordpress give you, as far as how many people visisted your blog, if they were refered and from where, etc…
Thanks as always for an informative Ask Chef Dennis post!
Jessica | Oh Cake
I always appreciate your Ask Chef Dennis posts. I need to get on pinterest. I found it counter-intuitive and lost interest but I’m going to try getting into it and read some tutorials. Also – good tip on posting old content in between new on google+. I hadn’t thought about that. Thank you!