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*I originally made this gelato with Meyer Lemons so either variety are good.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
J.B.B.
Chef Dennis:
Have you ever tried mixing up this “custard” in a power blender; i.e., a Vitamix? If so, what speed would you use and how long would you blend it? Would you dump it immediately into an ice cream machine? I’ve been pondering doing this, but fear creating butter; what’cha think?
JBB
Chef Dennis Littley
I have never tried that method and don’t really know why you would want to do that if you’re still going to use an ice cream machine to finish it. It’s an extra step you don’t really need
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for letting me know how it turned out, I wasn’t sure but it didn’t sound like the results would be better than just making it in the ice cream machine
Denese
Meyers lemons have yet to hit the shelves in Colorado (born & raised here, and I’ve never seen them at our store), so we made this with regular lemons. We used a full cup of juice & boy was it intense! However, we LOVED it – and, the intensity forced us to enjoy it in smaller portions which helps with the guilt of not squeezing in a workout afterward 😉 When we make it again, we’ll probably reduce to 3/4 cup and continue to fine-tune from there (since we’ll likely never get to enjoy this with Meyer lemon juice). Thank you for sharing such a yummy, refreshing recipe!
Susan
I just made this last week in my Cuisinart ice cream machine, and it was a-mazing! My husband raved for days! I am wondering, though, we love key lime anything, so could I substitute key lime juice in this recipe? I think it would be fabulous too!
Thanks!!
Susan
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed the ice cream Susan, and absolutely feel free to change out the juice to key lime, or any other citrus it works wonderfully! The base recipe is pretty good with just about anything you can think. I have other gelato recipes on my site.
carol
chef, thank you for this sinful but delicious gelato recipe. Is their anyway to make this without a ice cream maker, please help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Carol
I’ve never made Ice Cream without a maker of some sort, but I would think if you let it begin to freeze and then everynow and then whip it up some until it gets solid that it may come out okay. A machine really just puts air into the mix with the constant motion.
Good Luck
Dennis
Sarah
I could not, for the life of me, find Meyer Lemons anywhere near me, so I decided to try this recipe with regular lemons instead last night. Oh my, it is INTENSE and delicious. I’ll definitely be making it again!
Chef Dennis Littley
Hi Sarah
Meyer Lemons do cut down the intensity a bit but every bite is like a bite of sunshine! Happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Andrea
I used this recipe today, substituting grapefruit juice for the lemon juice. It came out just perfect, and finally satisfied the craving for pink grapefruit gelato I’d been nursing for months! Thanks for a great, versatile recipe!
Chef Dennis Littley
What a great idea Andrea, we have some wonderful grapefruits in season here in Florida, I’ll have to give it a try!
Courtney St Clair
Hi Chef Dennis:
Thank you so much for the time and care you put into explaining your recipes. I find the success of a dish is genuinely influenced by understanding how ingredients work and why one is using specific techniques, so I always look for that extra bit of information from those who offer recipes online.
My fiancé and I recently made your lovely Meyer lemon gelato. We’d never done anything with Meyer lemons or attempted gelato, so we were doubly pleased with the terrific results we obtained. Delicious –
bright, refreshing, and not too sweet! We love citrus, so we chose to double the amount of fine zest in the recipe. I ran into the same difficulty as the other Courtney who posted about the zest: clumps of it clinging to the paddle. Not a problem. I just scraped them off, gently stirred the zest back into the gelato, then churned for a minute more to distribute. It was such a quickly executed fix that no appreciable consistency was lost.
We’ll be trying your tiramisu recipe next. Also a wholly new venture for us, but I’m not worried with your thoughtful instruction to go by…
Thanks!
Courtney St. Clair
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment Courtney! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the gelato, its always been one of my favorites and so easy to make. I hope you experiment with other fruits using the base recipe it really does adapt quite well. I have a Strawberry gelato recipe that I posted which is the base for all of my other gelato endeavors.
I have two posts for tiramisu, one is a step by step, you might find that more helpful. Please let me know how that turns out when you try it
Cheers
Dennis
Courtney
Hi Chef D,
I have made this recipe twice and the 3rd batch is in my ice cream maker now. It is so easy and so delicious! I did a taste test with some friends against some imported Italian lemon gelato that I picked up at a gourmet grocery store for $8 a pint! My friends liked yours as much as the expensive imported stuff. They were really close in taste. I have a Meyer lemon tree in my backyard. It feels so good to have a recipe that uses 6 lemons. Now, here’s my only complaint / question…how do you keep the zest evenly distributed? The first time I made it, all the zest aggregated and stuck in lumps on the stirring paddle of my Cuisinart ice cream maker. The second time I made it, I decided to hold back the zest until the very last minute or two of freezing so that the gelato would be thick when I added the zest. Unfortunately, it still just clumped up and left little zest meatballs in my gelato. So this time…no zest at all. I am thinking to candy some peel as a garnish for some cordial glasses that I will serve the gelato in. Any ideas on how to solve the zest distribution problem?
Chef Dennis
Hi Courtney
thanks so much for letting me know how much you’ve enjoyed my Meyer Lemon Gelato. As for the zest you might try making it very fine, and you may still see some on the paddle but probably not as much. One thing about the zest is it does add flavor to the final product, so removing it totally might slightly alter the flavor. If it does still prove to be a problem, I would suggest making the mixture the night before with the zest, then straining it before you put it into your freezer. Once it comes out of the maker you might try adding the bigger zest into the ice cream by simply sprinkling it on top and folding it into the mixture, add it in about 1/3 at a time.
The candied peel sounds like a nice garnish and even fresh zest would work as well, it would add a nice aroma to the gelato when it was served.
hope this helps!
Dennis
Pam Cousino
Just made this today. It was excellent and will be made again. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Chef D
You’re welcome Pam, thanks for letting me know! Happy New Year!
Sandy
How beautiful..now you have totally confused me, I was ready to make strawberry topped lemon bars until I found your delicious looking gelato. Perhaps back to the store for more Meyer Lemons and I’ll do them both.and oh wouldn’t Dorie Greenspan’s Sablés au Citron send this gelato over the edge ! Thank you for sharing.
Chef D
Thanks Sandy, it was really tart and refreshing, you can really taste the flavors when you cut back on cream and just use milk!
Hyosun Ro
Chef Dennis – I am back to tell you I made this gelato last night, and we had it as a desert tonight. It’s very refreshing and delicious! It does have a good gelato texture as well. Thanks for the great recipe!
Clarion
Oh, this makes me so very eager for summer. This looks so crisp, light and refreshing.
Jessica | Oh Cake
Dear Chef,
I thought you might get a kick out of this – I find you so helpful I started a pinterest board of “Ask Chef Dennis” so I can easily find those bits of advice that have been most useful.
Thank you for all you do to help all of us!
Best,
Jessica aka Oh Cake
Chef D
Jessica
that is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time! Thank you so much, I’m on way over to see it now!
Dennis
Cucina49
Would you send me an invite to Pinterest? I’ve requested one from them a couple of times, but never have received one. The gelato reminds me of the flavors I had in Italy this past summer–you’re given me flashbacks of Genoa!
Nicole, RD
I’ve been looking for something a bit different to do with Meyer lemons…this is perfect! Thanks, Chef Dennis!