June 14, 2016

Lemon Ice Cream, The Most Refreshing Taste of Summer

Natacha Sanz Caballero Desserts and Sweets citrus, El Taroncheral, fruit trees, ice cream, lemon, summer, taste of summer

If there’s a dessert that prominently features in our menu during our summers in Spain, it is my sister Susana’s lemon ice cream. She makes an amazing one, everyone’s favorite, and for the most part, with lemons from the property. I’ve talked about El Taroncheral before (click here), the place that probably holds the most memories of my childhood and youth’s summers, and where we return, every summer. I like to think that my children will have memories of it as well later in their lives.

El Taroncheral, almost a made-up word by us kids taking the valencian word tarongerar, which means orange tree orchard (taronja meaning orange in the valencian language), the property took its name from what  it was, a large orange tree growing property. Eventually, three houses were built, and many of those orange trees had to be cut to make room for them. The watering basin was transformed into a double duty structure: a swimming pool, for the enjoyment of the homes’ dwellers, which could be emptied on demand to continue to water the orchards, and fill up just us easily, thanks to the well lying underneath. Other fruit trees grew on the property —pomegranate trees, fig trees, peach trees, apricot trees, louquat trees, many, many palm trees and, eventually, even more plum trees. And I don’t know when exactly this happened, but at one point, our gardener, Antonio, used a graft technique to convert some of the orange trees into lemon trees.

To this day, Susana’s lemon ice cream is made mostly of the lemons that grow in El Taroncheral. In fact, most lemons that we use in the house come from the property. My lemon ice cream is obviously not made with lemons from El Taroncheral, but I still thought this was a good opportunity to make it, in anticipation for my sister’s, and for that summer that can’t come soon enough. It’s creamy and tangy and refreshing, very easy to make, and it could become a new staple in your freezer —although I don’t anticipate you will have much leftovers to store after you try it! I like to eat it on its own, but it’s also delicious over a bowl of macerated berries. The taste of summer!

 

LEMON ICE CREAM

Helado de Limón

Ingredients:

6 large lemons

1 cup granulated sugar

2.5 cups whipping cream

 

Finely grate the peel of the lemons until you obtain 2 Tbs lemon zest. Set aside. Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice into a jar or pitcher with a capacity of at least 4 cups (you will obtain approximately 1 1/4 cups of juice; if less than that, squeeze one more lemon). Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Slowly add the cream and stir to mix. Place this mixture in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn following the manufacturers instructions. With the machine on, add the lemon zest in small pinches a few minutes before the ice cream is ready. Transfer to an ice cream container, cover, and freeze until ready to serve.

If an ice cream machine is not available, place a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Add the lemon zest to the lemon juice-sugar-cream mixture and stir to distribute it evenly. Pour this mixture into the 5-by-9-inch pan and place in the freezer. After about 1 hour, using a fork, stir to mix again. After 1 hour, repeat this process again. Cover and keep in the freezer until ready to serve.