Lemon Ice Cream Recipe

Name: Lemon Ice Cream Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 lb / 500ml heavy cream; 3 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice; 3 Lemon zest and juice; 3 Egg yolks

Ever thought of ice cream being healthy? Using the right ingredients anything can be healthy, some like lemon ice cream, could even save lives.

It’s too bad, lemon ice cream wasn’t invented before. It could have saved hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the world.

Unfortunately, the discovery of this delicious and lifesaving treat was not hindered by lack of found or willingness to get it, but solely technological advancement.

During the centuries anyone who ever tried scooping up some iced dessert during the heat of summer, came from a privileged background or was incredibly lucky. In an era when refrigeration meant storing ice block, cut from frozen lakes in underground cellars getting ice for our tea, was out of reach of many.

Who invented ice creams?

Actually, it didn’t even occur to anyone that ice should be used in our dessert recipes until Marco Polo introduced this fascinating Chinese concept to the world. It doesn’t need to mention that it caught up quickly across the upper class and even faster spread across the European continent.

Maybe spreading would be a bit of a stretch as it still required a snowy mountain during the summer months for the dessert to be truly enjoyable but due to marriages between royals helped the recipes reach other countries than just Italy.

If they had portable fridges, all could have gone much quicker. Not only ice cream could have benefited from the invention of refrigeration though.

It may seem like a pointless waste of resources but many now essential inventions (dishwasher, coffee capsules) sprung from the desires of average people who didn’t even know they had them. The fact that millions died because no one cared about their misery along the way, was also part of the journey though.

Could ice cream save lives?

Lemon scurvy preventive properties were known around the 13^th century but using lemons as a preventive method rather than just cure the illness, took hundreds of more years to realize. Mainly because refrigeration and thus stocking fresh fruits or vegetables weren’t an option not just on ships but sometimes on the mainland either.

Incredible as it may sounds but potatoes were a life saver and not a health concern when first introduced from the Americas. As the potato skin contains vitamins and minerals and it can be kept for months without a fridge, it was an essential vegetable for many communities to fight scurvy successfully.

But once something becomes a pursuit of the wealthy, the not so privileged would want a share of it too. Probably nowhere this is more pronounced than in Britain where centuries old traditions of class divide are still openly practiced and celebrated.

Yet, this was the first place on Earth where average people could enjoy ice cream as much as the upper class when a businessman started to import ice from Norway and sold it on the streets for anybody who had a couple of loose change.

Probably lemon wasn’t the most popular option as neither it is today or at least not in the States where chocolate and vanilla ice cream is leading the ice cream vending charts. Not like modern store-bought ice cream would have any positive properties for the human body, except providing instant pleasure due to the egregious amount of sugar stuffed in them but there isn’t everything lost.

What can we do?

Making our own ice cream was never been easier with all the superb ice cream machines out there that costs more than some people earn in a lifetime in some parts of the world.

Luckily, we can make our own ice cream too with basic 20^th century tools like a freezer, a bowl and some sort of mixer. It will take a bit more time that’s for sure but investing effort in our food will only makes it taste better and what else would be more important when making ice creams?

Ingredients

1lb / 500ml heavy cream
3 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice
3 Lemon zest and juice
3 Egg yolks

How to make Lemon ice cream

Wash the lemons thoroughly.
Grate their zest and put it in a small container and set it aside.
Continue working with the lemon. Squeeze their juice out.
Pour heavy cream into a big saucepan and heat it up on medium while stirring it gradually.
Brush zest into the saucepan as well.
Leave warmed heavy cream in low heat to simmer.
Meanwhile separate the eggs. Put egg whites in the fridge to save them for another time.
Whisk yolks with agave syrup until light yellow.
Pour a cup of warm heavy cream from the saucepan into the yolk while mixing it continuously.
Stir until getting an even mixture.
Pour the yolk mixture into the saucepan and stir as fast as possible until it thickens.
Take it off the cooktop.
Finally add the lemon juice in as well to mix.
Pour the cream in container and put it in the freezer for 4-6 hours.
Stir it every 30 to 60 minutes to avoid the crystallization of the water in the cream or use an ice cream machine.

Enjoy!

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