This homemade lemon curd ice cream recipe produces extremely smooth, dense, and creamy ice cream with a wonderfully sweet lemon flavour. The recipe will be split into three sections: SECTION 1: The Science of Ice Cream Making and Preparation Tips; SECTION 2: Full Recipe; and SECTION 3: Quick-Read Recipe.
Please click here to read SECTION 1: The Science of Ice Cream Making and Preparation Tips. I strongly recommend starting with this section.
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SECTION 2: FULL RECIPE
PREP TIME:
About 15 minutes
HEATING TIME:
About 35 minutes for the mix
About 15 minutes for the lemon curd
INGREDIENTS:
Cream
Full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed milk
Unrefined sugar
Skimmed milk powder
Egg yolks
LEMON CURD
(About 8 large lemons are needed for the zest and juice)
Finely grated zest 30g
Lemon juice 170g
Egg Yolks 93g
Sugar 100g
Produces about 900 ml (0.95 quarts) of ice cream mix and lemon curd.
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF MILK FAT
Milk fat contributes significantly to the rich, full, and creamy flavour and to the smooth texture of ice cream (Goff & Hartel, 2013). Not enough milk fat is likely to produce ice cream that is coarse or sandy, whereas too much will likely result in a heavy buttery texture. Above is the spreadsheet I use to calculate my mixes and I’ve included it for you guys to accurately calculate the quantities of milk and cream that you’ll need. It’s based on the mix formulation calculations in Ice Cream (7th ed) (2013) by Goff & Hartel, which I highly recommend reading.
It’s important that you check the fat content percentage of the milk and cream that you’ll be using. Here in the U.K, our double cream and skimmed milk contain between 47.5% and 50.5% and less than 0.5% of milk fat respectively. You can use full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed milk.
To start, enter the fat percentage of your cream in the yellow Cream Fat % cell located on the top left of the spreadsheet. Do the same for the milk fat percentage in the yellow Milk Fat (%) cell. PRESS ENTER, OR CLICK ON A DIFFERENT CELL, FOR THE SPREADSHEET TO UPDATE. The spreadsheet will then display the quantities of milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and skimmed milk powder needed (in grams) in the cells in blue.
2. PREPARING AN ICE BATH
Before you start preparing your mix, take a large bowl and fill it with enough ice to make an ice bath. Have a large zip-lock freezer bag ready next to the bowl, along with some table salt. We’ll be using the zip lock bag and ice bath to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible after heating. This minimises the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’, between 5°C (41°F) and 65°C (149°F), where bacteria likes to multiply. The longer your mix spends in this temperature range, the more bacteria is likely to multiply and impart an undesirable taste and smell.
3. HEATING THE MIX
Weigh your pan and record its weight. We’ll use this weight to check whether we’ve achieved the desired 15% reduction after 25 minutes of heating.
Once you’ve prepared the ice bath and weighed your pan, add the sugar and skimmed milk powder followed by the egg yolks. Mix the yolks, sugar and skimmed milk powder to help prevent the yolks from curdling during heating.
Add the cream and milk and spend a good minute or so mixing all the ingredients before you switch on the heat.
Over a medium heat, heat the mixture until the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), making sure that you’re constantly stirring. You’ll risk burning the milk proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you don’t constantly stir the mix. It takes me 10 minutes to get my mix up to 71°C (160°F).
Once the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), turn the heat down to low, move your pan slightly off the heat, and continue heating and stirring until the temperature reaches 72°C (162°F). Use a food thermometer to keep your mix at 72°C (162°F) for 25 minutes, adjusting the position of your pan to help regulate the temperature. Don’t worry if you go slightly over 72°C (162°F); just try and keep the temperature as close to 72°C (162°F) as you can.
4. COOLING THE MIX
After 25 minutes of heating at 72°C (162°F), take the pan off the heat and weigh it. If the weight is greater than 850g plus the weight of the pan, place it back on the heat and continue heating for another 2-3 minutes or until you get the weight down to 850g.
Carefully pour the mix into the zip-lock bag and seal. Place the sealed bag in the ice bath and pour about a tablespoon of salt onto the ice to lower the temperature and cool the mix faster.
Once the mix has cooled to below 5°C (41°F), place the zip-lock bag in the fridge and leave overnight to age.
5. PREPARING THE LEMON CURD
Prepare a second ice bath, or use the same one if you still have ice that hasn’t melted.
To a small pan, add 93g egg yolks and 100g sugar and mix together. Add 30g grated lemon zest, 170g of lemon juice, and stir well.
Over a medium-low heat, slowly bring the temperature up to just above 71.2°C (160.2°F) and hold it there for 10 minutes to pasteurise the yolks. Be careful not to let the lemon curd rise above 72°C (162°F) to prevent the yolks from curdling and the eggy hydrogen sulphide taste from developing. The lemon mix won’t thicken much during heating so don’t feel that you have to continue heating for longer than 10 minutes. This heating stage is primarily to pasteurise the yolks; the mix will thicken as it ages overnight in the fridge.
After 10 minutes of heating, carefully strain the mix, using a large spoon to press down on the zest to extract as many flavour compounds as possible. Pour the mix into a zip-lock bag and place in your ice bath.
Once the lemon mix has cooled to below 5°C (41°F), place it in the fridge to age overnight.
6. CHURNING THE MIX
Once you’ve aged your mix and lemon curd overnight, carefully pour the mix into your machine followed by the lemon curd.
TIP#1 – FREEZER BOWL WALL TEMPERATURE
If you’re using an ice cream machine with an in-built compressor, with the bowl in the machine, switch on the compressor and leave it running for 15 minutes before adding the mix. This will ensure that the freezer bowl is as cold as possible when the mix is added, which increases the rate of nucleation and reduces residence time.
TIP#2 – EFFICIENT HEAT TRANSFER
If you’re using the Cuisinart ICE 30BC, use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl as soon as you pour in the mix. This will ensure that the dasher scrapes off the layer of ice that freezes to the side of the bowl. Any ice that is frozen to the side of the bowl will act as an insulator, slowing the release of heat from the ice cream to the bowl and increasing the residence time. Goff & Hartel (2013) note that even a very thin layer of ice remaining on the bowl wall can cause a dramatic reduction in heat transfer.
Use a spoon to push along any static lumps of ice cream and ensure that the mix is constantly moving whilst in the machine. Static lumps will likely take longer to freeze, resulting in greater ice crystal growth.
7. DRAW TEMPERATURE
Your ice cream will be ready when it develops a nice dry, stiff texture, and starts forming ribbon-like swirls. It should have a draw temperature (the temperature at which the partially frozen ice cream is removed from the machine) of between -9°C and -12°C (15.8°F and 10.4°F) with a lower draw temperature usually resulting in smaller ice crystals (Arbuckle, 1986).
Below are the residence times and draw temperatures for the domestic machines I’ve tried:
- Lello Musso Pola 5030 Dessert Maker: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 13 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
- Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker: 600 ml (0.63 quarts) – 16 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
- Cuisinart ICE-100 Ice Cream and Gelato Maker: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 35 minutes, -10°C (14°F).
- Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker: 700 ml (0.74 quarts) – 34 minutes, -9°C (15.8°F).
- Whynter ICM-200LS: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 28 minutes, -10°C (14°F).
- Cuisinart ICE 30-BC: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 34 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
8. EXTRACTION TIME
The extraction time (the time it takes to get your partially frozen ice cream out of your machine and into the freezer) has a considerable effect on ice crystal size. This is because as you extract your ice cream from the bowl and into a plastic container, it spends time at room temperature. At this relatively warm room temperature, some of the ice melts from the large ice crystals and the crystals that were initially small melt completely. When you then get your ice cream into your freezer for the static freezing stage, the melted ice re-freezes onto the large ice crystals that survived. The result is that the total number of ice crystals is reduced and their size increases, resulting in coarse or grainy texture.
TIP#3 – QUICK EXTRACTION
Just holding ice cream at a relatively warm room temperature as you extract it from your machine results in an increase in mean ice crystal size and a decrease in the number of ice crystals present. It’s therefore important that you extract the ice cream from the freezer bowl and get it into your freezer as quickly as possible.
9. THE STATIC FREEZING STAGE
At a draw temperature of between -9°C and -12°C (15.8°F and 10.4°F), your ice cream will have a consistency very similar to that of soft serve ice cream and will need to be placed in your freezer to harden. After about 4 hours, depending on your freezer, your ice cream will have a nice firm scoopable consistency, somewhere around -15°C (5°F), and be ready to serve.
10. SERVING YOUR ICE CREAM
Serve your ice cream at around -15°C (5°F). As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 (6.1) to -7.8°C (18°F), flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
If you do give the recipe a go, I’d love to hear your thoughts so please do get in touch. Please help other chefs by using the stars at the top of the page to rate the recipe and please spread the love on facebook with the buttons below. Ruben 🙂
SECTION 3: QUICK-READ RECIPE
- Fill a large bowl with some ice. Place some table salt and a zip-lock bag next to the bowl ready for later.
- Combine the sugar, skimmed milk powder, egg yolks, cream, and milk in a large pan. Heat over a medium heat until the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), making sure that you’re constantly stirring.
- When the mix reaches 71°C (160°F), quickly turn the heat down to low and position your pan slightly off the heat. Continue heating and stirring until the temperature reaches 72°C (162°F).
- Once the mix reaches 72°C (162°F), continue heating for 25 minutes whilst constantly stirring.
- After 25 minutes of heating, carefully pour the mix into the zip lock bag. Place the bag in the large bowl and pour about a tablespoon of salt over the ice.
- Once the mix has cooled to below 5°C (41°F), place in the fridge to age overnight.
- Prepare a second ice bath, or use the same one if you still have ice that hasn’t melted. To a small pan, add 93g egg yolks and 100g sugar and mix together. Add 30g grated lemon zest, 170g of lemon juice, and stir well.
- Over a medium-low heat, slowly bring the temperature up to just above 71.2°C (160.2°F) and hold it there for 10 minutes to pasteurise the mix. The lemon mix won’t thicken much during heating so don’t feel that you have to continue heating for longer than 10 minutes. The heating stage is primarily to pasteurise the yolks; the mix will thicken as it ages in the fridge.
- After 10 minutes of heating, carefully strain the mix, using a large spoon to press down on the zest to extract as much flavour as possible. Pour the mix into a zip-lock bag and place in your ice bath.
- Once the lemon mix has cooled to below 5°C (41°F), place it in the fridge to age overnight.
- The next day, pour the mix into your ice cream machine followed by the lemon curd.
- After about 30 minutes of churning, depending on your machine, quickly empty the ice cream into a plastic container and place in the freezer for about 4 hours to harden.
- After about 4 hours, your ice cream will have a nice firm consistency and will be ready to serve.
References:
Arbuckle, W.S., 1986. Ice Cream (4th ed). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Ben-Yoseph E., and Hartel, R. W., 1998. Computer simulation of ice recrystallization in ice cream during storage. Journal of Food Engineering 38(3):309–29.
Cook, K. L. K., & Hartel, R. W., 2010. Mechanisms of Ice Crystallisation in Ice Cream Production. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. 9 (2).
Damodaran, S., 1996. Functional properties. In: Nakai, S., Modler, H.W. (Eds.), Food Proteins – Properties and Characterization. VCH Publisher, New York, pp. 167–234.
Donhowe, D. P., Hartel R. W., and Bradley R.L., 1991. Determination of ice crystal size distributions in frozen desserts. Journal of Dairy Science. 74.
Donhowe, D. P., 1993. Ice Recrystallization in Ice Cream and Ice Milk. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsm-Madison.
Donhowe, D. P., and Hartel, R. W., 1996. Recrystallization of ice in ice cream during controlled accelerated storage. International Dairy Journal. 6.
Drewett, E. M. & Hartel, R. W., 2007. Ice Crystallization in a Scraped Surface Freezer. Journal of Food Engineering. 78(3). 1060-1066
Flores, A. A., & Goff, H. D., 1999. Ice Crystal Size distribution in Dynamically Frozen Model Solutions and Ice Cream as Affected by Stabilzers. Journal of Dairy Science. Volume 82. 7. 1399–1407
Goff, H. D., 2012. Finding Science in Ice Cream. Presentation – Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science.
Goff, H. D. and Hartel R. W., 2013. Ice Cream. Seventh Edition. New York Springer.
Monahan, F. J., McClements, D. J. & Kinsella, J. E., 1993. Polymerization of whey proteins in whey protein-stabilized emulsions. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 41.1826–1829.
Phillips, L. G., Schulman, W. and Kinsella, J. E., 1990. pH and heat treatment effects on foaming of whey protein isolate. Journal of Food Science. 55:1116–1119.
Russell, A. B., Cheney, P. E., & Wantling, S. D., 1999. Influence of freezing conditions on ice crystallisation in ice cream. Journal of Food Engineering. 29.
Sava, N., Rotaru, G. & Hendrickx, M., 2005. Heat-induced changes in solubility and surface hydrophobicity of β-Lactoglobulin. Agroalimentary Processes and Technologies. Volume 11. 1. 41-48.
Made this with key lime curd instead of lemon curd, and added a graham cracker crust crumble throughout and it was phenomenal! Making again tonight.
Hey Gabi,
Thanks for getting in touch. Great to hear that your key lime variation came out well. I’ve actually got key lime pie on my list of recipes to test when I have some time.
I’d love to get your feedback on the 25 minutes heating requirement of this recipe if you have a spare 2 minutes. Do you find heating for that long frustrating/annoying? Would you prefer a shorter heating time of 2 minutes but using xanthan gum (a stabiliser) in the recipe, or are you happy heating for 25 minutes if it means that you can keep xanthan gum out of the recipe? I’m thinking about updating the recipes on the blog to make them quicker to make but this would involve using a stabiliser.
All the best,
Ruben
Apologies for the delayed response, Ruben. The 25 minute heating time can be cumbersome, especially when making the cuts as well, but the results are so good, it is worth it on occasion. I would love to see an alternative that could produce similar results, but the one other recipe I’ve used with xanthum gum is nowhere near as good as this recipe, so it would be interesting to see how it compares.
I think all that you are doing is cool
I think I’m going to try and make this ice cream
Hello Ruben , thank you so much for your recipe. I live in Texas and there is a dairy that sells a low-fat gelato mix that is 8% butterfat. Like the other gentleman. I wanted to purchase the mix to make a gelato… can I merely add your lemon curd recipe to the 8% mix and cross my fingers for a lemony gelato? I have made several of your recipes from scratch and all have come out wonderful!
I just made this recipe, minus the skim milk powder, and it’s delicious!!!! I made it for a friend for her birthday, can’t wait to give it to her. I usually bake her a cake but this time I thought I would try something with no flour so your ice cream was a perfect fit.
I just made the lemon curd ice cream and it’s delicious. It has wonderful mouthfeel. My family really liked it. Thanks. The calculator you supplied helped me to get the right balance of fat for the heavy cream available in the US. Will it work with any recipe that I want to make up? I want to attempt to make a passion fruit ice cream, and a lavender with honey ice cream.
Hi there Carolyn!
Thanks for getting in touch! 🙂 Great to hear the lemon curd turned out well and that the spreadsheet helped! Yes it will work on pretty much any recipe, depending on the flavour that is mixed in. The base will produce about 850ml of finished ice cream. For about 1000ml, try the vanilla bean ice cream spreadsheet.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand with any of your recipes.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben –
I’m planning to make this over the weekend – what do you think of infusing it with a bit of basil flavor by heating the milk mixture with some while basil leaves, then straining once it has cooled overnight? How much would you recommend adding? Perhaps one cup whole basil leaves? Thank you!
Alexandria
Hi there Alexandria!
Thanks for getting in touch! 🙂 Did you give the lemon curd recipe a try? I’d love to get your feedback if you did.
I haven’t tried infusing basil leafs before so not quite sure how much to recommend. Do leave them infusing in your mix overnight though. I also suspect that you will get a difference in flavour between adding them to the cold mix in your fridge and infusing overnight, and adding to the warm mix in the pan before then infusing overnight in the fridge.
You could also try making a tincture where you infuse the basil leafs in alcohol for a week or so and then add one or two teaspoons to the mix. This will give a stronger and more defined flavour as I suspect that some of the flavour molecules in the basil may be more soluble in alcohol than in fat; I don’t know for sure though.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck with your basil lemon curd ice cream.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben, I did try this recipe and I found it amazing, with a rich lemon curd flavor. Surely a keeper. I used your spreadsheet to adapt the amounts of cream and milk, as I can’t get hold of such fat-rich cream here in Spain, at least where I live. I’m prediabetic and I usually add a sweetener named tagatesse. It worked great. I was lazy and I didn’t reduce the mix as much as you recommend, but the ice cream turned out great all the same. I’ll be trying more of your recipes soon.
One last thing: I recently read at Opusculum by Michael Laiskonis that he recommends to give the mix a stir with a hand mixer just before cooling it in the ice bath, in order to homogenize the fat lumps, here: https://mlaiskonis.com/2014/05/24/ice-cream/. I guess you don’t do it, but have you given it a try? Do you think it makes a difference? Thanks for sharing all your incredible expertise.
Hi again Miriam!
Great to hear that your lemon curd ice cream turned out well 🙂 I’m actually researching alternative sweeteners to ice cream at the moment and hope to have my research up on the blog in a few weeks! I’d recommend sticking to the reduction target as you may not get the same smooth and creamy texture with other flavours.
I’m not sure how much a hand mixer would homogenise a mix but I suspect that it’s effect wouldn’t be significant. I use homogenised milk and cream at the moment and so don’t have any issues with fat coalescing or clumping. I’ve used un-homogenised milk and cream in the past and found that the fat did coalesce during ageing. A hand blender may be more useful if you’re not using homogenised milk and cream. I’d recommend trying it on one batch and then comparing the results to a non-blended batch.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best to you in Spain,
Ruben
Thank you for your experience, Ruben. Great to hear about the sweeteners, I will stay tuned ;). Have a great summer.
Hi,
I have noticed in the balance sheet you only measure the base percentages. Does this mean the favouring ingredients does not have an effect in the recipe?
Hi there Fatma!
Thanks for getting in touch! The effect of added flavours on texture will depend on the flavour and quantity added. When the added flavour has a negative effect, I usually adjust the milk fat content on the spreadsheet (although I don’t think I’ve actually done that yet on the recipes on the blog).
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben, I’m on the verge of making this ice cream ;), but first I would like to know if possible the rationale behind the dosing spreadsheet (which I already downloaded by the way) and where it came from (references, I mean), because it’s just perfect.
I’m eager to try your fat-milk proportions as plain store-bought cream in Spain has usually less fat than the one you use and I want to check the difference with the recipes I’ve been using. Thanks!!
Hi again Miriam!
Great to hear that you’ll be trying the lemon curd recipe. I’d love to get your feedback so please do let me know what you think of the recipe and of the ice cream. I created my spreadsheet using the calculations from Ice Cream (2013) by Goff and Hartel, which I highly recommend.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I hope you enjoy the ice cream!
All the best,
Ruben
Thank you so much! I will give you my feedback as soon as I make it! Best, Miriam
I made the curd and Ice cream base last night, and will churn it later. It was a lot of stirring! What would happen if I cooked the lemon curd and ice cream base ingredients together in a single step? Would I get a quality result?
thanks,
Jason
Hi there Jason!
Thanks for getting in touch. How did your lemon curd ice cream turn out? It is indeed a lot of stirring but hopefully the creamy texture justifies the effort.
You could try cooking both the lemon curd and ice cream base together. My concern is that the eggy hydrogen sulphide flavour might develop after 25 minutes of heating. The increase in the lecithin in the yolks might also make the emulsion a little too unstable, which might effect foaming and might leave you with a hard ice cream.
I haven’t tried heating the lemon curd and the base together myself yet so give this a go and compare it to your first batch. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so please do let me know if you try heating both together.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
I have finally tried Ruben’s method for making ice cream at home as well as his recipe for lemon curd ice cream. I was skeptical of the degree of detail, but I followed his instructions as closely as possible–no substitutions, no shortcuts. I used the Cuisinart ICE-30BC.
First, I purchased a Thermoworks thermometer with probe and clip to hold the thermometer to the side of the pan (unlike the Thermapen, it doesn’t keep shutting off at inopportune times). I weighed everything and mixed exactly as Ruben specifies, although I did have to use an immersion blender to get the milk powder to dissolve, but the resulting foam disappeared quickly in the heating process. I heated and stirred the mix for 25 minutes as specified. I managed to keep the temp within a degree or so of the recommended temp by moving the pan on and off the heat slightly. It did not look as if much evaporation had taken place, but when I weighed the pan + mix, the weight was quite close to the target. About 5 minutes more cooking, and it was there. I had the ice bath ready, cooled the mix down quickly, and put it in the fridge. Then I went through a similar (but much quicker) procedure for the lemon curd. A comment on the look of both: They do not thicken much at all (as one expects, for example, crème anglaise to do). Just a suggestion about the recipe: it might be helpful to tell this to the cook, as one is tempted to make the mix thicken. But, it turns out, both mix and lemon curd thicken quite a lot as they cool.
Overnight I got the freezer down as low as it would go (-8 F/-22 C) Several hours before churning in the Cuisinart, I used the “power freeze” mode of my Samsung to lower the temp to approximately -13F/-25C. The power freezer function turns itself off after 2.5 hours, so it couldn’t be left on overnight. I didn’t keep track, but churning took around 25 minutes. I did my best to hold the dasher against the side of the bowl as Ruben specifies. It wasn’t really possible to eliminate all the buildup on the side, but I think I did minimize it. The problem is that the bowl was so cold that it started freezing the mix the second I poured it in, so by the time I had put the mix container down, there was already a thin layer on the sides. Aware of Ruben’s cautions about taking too much time to get the finished ice cream into the freezer, I hurried as much as I could. I decided to leave the thin layer of frozen mix on the side of the Cuisinart bowl rather than spend time scraping every bit of it; there wasn’t a lot, so it was not as serious a loss of quantity as it might sound. I kept the power freeze going until I was fairly certain the ice cream had hardened.
Now for the results: It was by far the best ice cream I have ever made (in maybe 20 uses of the Cuisinart). It has a creaminess I have rarely experienced in ice cream. And the flavor and texture added by using lemon curd (as opposed to flavoring the mix with lemon juice and zest) are amazing. The finished product does soften rather quickly once out of the freezer, but once this fact is known, it can be taken into account in the future. I was apprehensive about using skim milk powder as I do not like the smell of dried milk at all, but there was no taste of it in the finished product. I didn’t know the fat content of the cream I used because, as is the case with most U.S. cream, it is not stated on the container, so I went with Ruben’s minimum fat content recipe. Would I use the recipe again? Definitely. It is a lot of work compared to the usual process and requires attention to detail that only an obsessive person would actually enjoy. For anyone who cooks regularly, however, the extended heating time for the mix does not seem onerous (not much worse than making some caramels). I want to try vanilla ice cream so that I can try to determine whether it is just the basic recipe and method that make the product so good–or perhaps the addition of lemon curd contributed a great deal to the extraordinary mouthfeel. I think in future tries I will be much more relaxed since I know that (1) keeping the temp of the mix for 25-30 minutes is not as difficult as it sounds, (2) getting the freezer down to a low temp is actually possible, (3) moving the ice cream from dasher/bowl to the freezer in a timely way can be accomplished fairly easily. A few final suggestions for the recipe: It might be useful to state that about 8 large lemons were required to get the amounts called for, and it would help to list the ingredients in the order in which they are used. But these are minor matters. It is a great recipe, and I thank Ruben for it.
Thank you Jim!
What a wonderfully well-detailed experience! Thanks for the notes!
Hi Ruben,
That’s this weekends ice cream decided on! This looks great!
A couple of questions for you if that’s ok?
Any reason you strain they lemon curd after it’s been cooked off (usually the zest is left in I think)?
How did you come to the ‘egg yolk only’ lemon curd recipe? Again most call for whole eggs and butter
Would you alter the Lemon Curd recipe if you were actually intending the end product to be a conserve?
Great stuff as always,
Paul
Hi there Paul!
Thanks for getting in touch. I strain the lemon curd because if left in, the lemon zest creates a strange chewy texture that I don’t think is very pleasant.
I find that the egg yolk only lemon curd produces a sharper lemon taste that isn’t as rich as one with butter added. I find adding butter makes a for a richer curd with a slightly subdued lemon flavour. I’d recommend having a go at making my recipe with and without butter to see which of the two you prefer. Please do let me know how you get on if you do add butter.
Yes I would alter the lemon curd recipe if I were making a conserve, just not sure how exactly.
I hope that helps. Do let me know how you get on if you do decide to give the recipe a go.
All the best,
Ruben
Thanks for getting back to me Ruben,
I followed the recipe to a T and I’ve just finished churning – The resulting ice cream is perhaps the best I’ve ever tasted, it looks like banoffe has finally been dethroned!
The way the lemon cuts through is amazing as is the extra smooth texture.
I’m going to make some lemon curd as a conserve tomorrow as well 🙂
Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your knowledge with us all.
Paul
Hi again Paul!
I’m very glad to hear that your ice cream turned out well; it makes all the work that goes into posting the recipes worth while so thank you! 🙂
I hope the conserve turns out well!
All the best to you,
Ruben
Ruben, As you know from my post on eGullet, I love the lemon curd ice cream, and now I would like to try the pistachio. But I notice that the recipe has the previous instructions (cooking for an hour), along with some differences in ingredients. Do you see any problem with my using the lemon recipe, but omitting the curd and adding the pistachio paste? Or is there a better base recipe to use?
Hi Jim!
No problem at all using the lemon curd recipe, omitting the curd, and using pistachio paste. I’m in the process of updating all the recipes on the blog with the 25 minute heating method to make them more accessible to people at home.
Please do let me know what you think of the ice cream if you give the modified pistachio recipe a try.
All the best,
Ruben
Thanks Mr Ruben for your wonderful help. This information helps a lot.
No problem. Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck with your ice cream.
Hi Mr. Ruben,
Thank you for your wonderful detailed post. I have tried to use your recipe and make low fat icecream (i.e. gelato). However, I get a burning sensation when icecream
is served. I use only pastuerizer and ageing process to 1st make icecream base and then using batch freezer make
the icecream. After which I store them at -18 degree. However, we take the icecream to our stores the same day where
we keep them in static freezer at -14 degrees throughout for serving. This -14 remains as long as the icecream doesnt
get over. The problem now is with -14 degrees, icecream melts quickly, one gets burning sensation and icecrystals are formed
after 2-3 days (prominent in fruit flavors). However, if we reduce freezer temperature to -16, it hardens making it
difficult to scoop.
Is there a problem in the way we make our icecream base or there is a problem with storing and serving temperature?
Awaiting your reply.
Manish
Hello to you Mr Manish,
Many thanks for getting in touch. Ice cream will have a different freezing point depending on the ingredients, most notably the sugar content. Fruit flavours will likely start to crystallise faster than others probably because of the increase in water content from the fruit. Storing different flavours in a display cabinet is difficult because of the constant temperature and the different freezing points of each ice cream. Also, ideally ice cream should be kept at around -15°C for no longer than a day. The longer you leave your ice cream as this temperature, the larger the ice crystals will grow.
If your ice cream is melting too quickly at -14°C, I would recommend that you play around with the sugar contents until all your ice creams have a similar freezing point and consistency. You could also try adding stabilisers to retard ice crystal growth. I would also recommend storing your ice cream in your display freezer for no longer than a day.
Where do you guys have your shop?
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
Also, I would not recommend making low fat ice cream using my recipes because the reduction in fat will very likely lead to an increase in ice crystal size.
Hi Mr Ruben,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
Out stores are in Mumbai. Usually we try to sell off all flavors in 3-4 days. However, sometimes some flavors may take 15 days to sell too.
Since space is limited we keep all the flavors in the same static freezers at -13 C throughout its lifespan. Do you think we should keep our low fat icecream at different temperatures in day and in night?
We do use gelato base (containing stabilizers) for make a common icecream base. However, the burning sensation is very high in our icecream and have been trying different ways to bring it down. Do you think it could be because of the temperature of static freezer (-13 C) throughout or it could be a reason of something else?
Moreover, we use 15.7% sugar to our icecream base. Customers complain of excess sugar if we go beyond that. Is the sugar level appropriate?
The iceburn sensation and ice crystals are a major problem now. I would be really grateful if you may help us with you expert advice.
Thanks!!
Hi again Manish!
15 days at around -14°C is a very long time! Any longer than 2-3 days and the ice crystals will grow. If you keep your ice creams at different temperatures during the day and then at night, the change in temperature will cause the ice crystals to go. It is very important to avoid changes in temperature. If you are storing it for a long period of time, I would recommend a storage temperature of between -25 and -30°C to minimise ice crystal growth.
The reason you are getting a burning sensation and big ice crystals is probably because of your low fat content in your low fat ice cream and probably the low total solids content. Try and increase the protein content with the use of skimmed milk powder to compensate for a reduction of fat. Also try increasing the total solids content by using more skimmed milk powder, more fat, or more egg yolks if you are using them.
The sugar level will depend on how sweet you want your ice cream. My ice cream has a sugar content of around 15%.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
I churned the lemon curd ice cream tonight and I have to admit, I don’t know exactly what to say.
Wow! Double Wow! What a texture and flavour! This is one awesome ice cream. The flavour profile is spot on, this is not “lemon” ice cream, this is “lemon curd” ice cream.
It puts all the effort of holding 72 deg C for 25 minutes into context. I think I just found my (new) favourite Ice Cream recipe…
I made only one variation to the churn. I first mixed the custard base and the curd in a seperate bowl using a stick blender. As I use a kitchen aid frozen bowl, some ice cream will always set on the sides of the bowl, as you cannot force the blade against the side like you can in a cuisinart. To avoid flecks of unflavoured base in the ice cream (which could happen while removing the ice cream at the end), I mixed both together first and then added to the bowl combined. Other than that, this recipe is a gem.
You have my respect Ruben, well done!
Luke
Thank you Luke!
This is incredibly instructive. Thanks. Something puzzles me, though. Despite working to two decimal places throughout the entire process, you call for the juice of “6 lemons” to make the curd. Given that there are large lemons and small lemons and inbetween lemons, why the lack of precision for this one element? I know it really doesn’t make much difference because the lemony-ness of the fruit will vary depending on a multitude of factors, but I was just struck at the anomaly in this instance.
Hi there Pete!
Thanks for getting in touch. That’s a very good point. Please use 110g of finely grated lemon zest and 170g of lemon juice.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated if you give the recipe a go.
All the best,
Ruben
Unfortunately, I don’t have a machine. I really should get one, especially as a new ICE 30 direct from Cuisinart is currently £42 on eBay. Seems a bit of a no-brainer!
Can I just double check your new measurements? 110g of zest strikes me as coming from a hell of a lot more than six lemons – a couple of dozen maybe. I’ve never actually weighed fine zest so maybe you can tell me differently. And I usually get around 45g of juice from a regular lemon… so four lemons in this instance. Your fastidious attention to detail is infectious. 🙂
And one lemony tip you might like to try (thanks to Pierre Hermé)… rub together the zest and sugar with your fingers until damp, grainy and aromatic. This technique liberates more of the natural oils from the zest.
Highly recommend the ICE-30, especially for £42!
I used a potato peeler for the zest, which I now know removes a lot more zest and skin than a grater; finely grated zest works much better. I’ve updated the lemon curd recipe to reflect the use of grated zest.
Many thanks for the lemony tip! I’m going to try it and see if it produces a stronger flavour! 🙂
Thanks again Pete,
Ruben
You *might* find a ‘cleaner’ taste given that a lot of the bitterness is in the pith which may have been present in your previous method. Also, microplane is better than a standard (box) grater. But in the absence of a double blind test it could all just be in our minds.