Super Lemon Ice Cream

Super Lemon Ice Cream

     One of the first jokes I remember as a kid was from the Red Skelton Show. That's a hint about how old I am!  Red and Mickey Rooney were in a sketch. They were painters. Red Skelton reaches up to the ladder, grabs the paint bucket and starts guzzling the paint. Mickey Rooney says, "How can you drink all that paint?" Red replies, "I get it wholesale"

     I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, but I remember that joke.

    If you're going to make ice cream at home, you had better get the cream wholesale. I like to group together four or five recipes I can make over a couple of weeks, so I can buy it at Costco by the half gallon. Otherwise it's cheaper to buy ice cream than to make it.

But not as fun or as tasty.

This recipe is from my go-to ice cream cookbook The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. It's an example of an ice cream you couldn't buy if you wanted to. 
It's called Super Lemon because it contains fresh lemon juice and grated lemon zest. There's only 1/2 cup sugar called for in a quart of ice cream.
The finished product is for lemon lovers only. Jaw clinchingly tart, but just sweet enough to be a real dessert. 
For less rabid lemon fans, this ice cream will call for some mix-ins or might make a nice filling for ice cream sandwiches.

Here's the ingredient list:

• zest from two lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups half and half (I used heavy cream, thinned with milk)
• pinch of salt

To make the base, grate the lemon zest into a blender or food processor, add the sugar, blend.
add the lemon juice and blend until the sugar dissolves. Add the half and half and salt, blend just for a second or two. 

Chill for at least an hour before churning.