In honor of Memorial Day, my love of gelato (and all dairy products) and my husband being gone for a month… I give you this.
In the words of my beloved brother-in-law, “It’s a summer good thing.”
Last summer my wonderful husband let me talk him into a trip to Italia since, in MY opinion, we had nothing better to do with our tax return money.
While there, I ate quite a lot of gelato.
What are you supposed to do when there is a gelataria on every corner calling your name, beaconing you to come in and eat some cold, smooth, creamy ice cream.
I had planned on eating more of the chocolate based flavors while there (I thoroughly researched gelato before going, even though this was my second time in Italy, the first time I did not spend enough time eating gelato). I wanted to know what to expect and how to order and all that.
So I thought I would be eating lots of flavors like cioccolato fondente, bacio maybe some coco and most likely caffé.
What I did NOT expect was the Limone.
Oh the heavenly limone.
I couldn’t resist it.
For the first time in my entire life I had a hard time deciding whether to get a fruit or a chocolate flavor.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the chocolate, the tiramisu, the coconut, the rare black licorice (very hard to find) and OH the panna cotta. My word, the panna cotta, ok that will be my next ice cream experiment. But the lemon ended up being completely irresistible to me.
So now that we are finally getting some semi-summer like weather I decided I needed some gelato al limone.
The heavy cream lover in me couldn’t resist this particular recipe. Despite the fact that traditionally gelato is made only with whole milk – I went with it. You just have to add a little extra lemon juice.
I am so very glad I did.
What a perfect blend of creamy lemony-ness. I am having a hard time controlling myself. I was honestly hoping my kids wouldn’t like it due to the tart lemon flavor, but no such luck.
I still have to share.
- 6 egg yolks
- 1¼ cups heavy whipping cream
- 7 lemons – zested & juiced (about ½ cup lemon zest & 1⅛ cup lemon juice)
- 2½ cups half and half
- 1¼ cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- First combine the egg yolks with the heavy cream with a whisk.
- Second combine the half and half, lemon zest, juice vanilla extract and sugar in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and remove from heat.
- Next slowly pour a little (about ¼ cup) of the half and half mixture into the heavy cream mixture, whisking the entire time you are pouring. Then pour the heavy cream mixture back into the half and half mixture, again slowly while whisking. You don't want the eggs to cook and get all lumpy, blech!
- Then lightly cover with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge to cool completely, about a half hour.
- Once cool, put into your ice cream maker and run according to manufacturer's instructions.
Recipe adapted from: http://www.bellalimento.com
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