Lemon ice cream, a taste of summer

By CINDY SUTTER

Now that my grill has had its first use of the season, it’s time to pull the ice-cream maker out of the back of the cupboard.

I started my recipe search with a taste for ice-cream sandwiches made with gingersnaps and frozen lemon curd or something close. I found a recipe on epicurious.com, where people raved about the lemon ice cream, but seemed a little less enthusiastic about the gingersnaps.

No matter, the ice cream by itself would make a lovely, if less ambitious, treat. And rather than making fussy sandwiches, it might be better to serve the ice cream with good-quality purchased gingersnaps or even to make an ice-cream pie with a crust of gingersnaps. For something lighter, simply make the ice cream and serve with a few berries.

Now that’s the beginning of summer.

LEMON ICE CREAM

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest

1‚Ñ2 cup fresh lemon juice

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan, whisk together the zest, lemon juice, sugar and eggs. Whisk in 1 cup of the half-and-half and the vanilla, and cook the mixture over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, until it just comes to a simmer. Strain the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the zest, and chill it, covered with plastic wrap, until it is cold. Whisk in the remaining 1 cup half-and-half and freeze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Makes about 1 quart.

XSource: Gourmet Magazine, June 1993, via www.epicurious.com.