WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS—

 Make ice cream.  Ice cream beats lemonade. It’s smooth, sweet, tart, icy-cold. Please tell Beyoncé.
In my case, the lemons are literal. At the end of their season, the skins thicken and the fruit begins to fall off the tree, bruising the tomatoes that grow beneath it. Using a squeeze here and a squeeze there, I can’t possibly consume so many lemons.

So, it’s ice cream. I recall many years ago in my pueblo, ice cream was a seasonal phenomenon. Corpus Christi day in early June marked the first day for eating ice cream as well as bathing in the sea. A truck delivered an ice cream kiosco to town, where it was installed in the plaza.  A vendor dispensed cortes, ice cream sandwiches, hand-cut from a block of ice cream in one of three flavors—nata (cream), vanilla or chocolate—and sandwiched between cookie slabs and polos, sweetened ices on a stick, akin to Popsicles. Those of us with a fridge with freezer could buy a whole brick of ice cream to enjoy at home, dipped into bowls. On trips to the city, at old fashioned ice cream parlors, we enjoyed hand-made flavors, including intensely lemony ice cream frozen inside a lemon shell. What a treat!

Lemon ice cream frozen in hollowed-out lemon shells. What a treat!

You don´t need an ice cream churn to make pretty good ice cream at home. If you do have one, use it for this recipe. Otherwise, partially freeze the cream, then use an immersion blender to beat it smooth, breaking up ice crystals and whipping in some air. 

This version is not really a “cream.” It’s made with evaporated milk that is cooked with eggs to make a custard base. Scald the milk with a strip of lemon zest and, if desired, a sprig of herbs (I used lemon thyme).

Ice cream frozen in lemon shells makes a pretty presentation. For this you need six medium lemons, hollowed out. Squeeze the flesh and membranes for juice. Scrape the shells clean.

I had more juice than needed for the ice cream, so I followed up with lemony ice cubes, perfect for a gin-tonic or fizzy lemonade.

These diminutive ice cubes are flavored with lemon juice, tonic water and botanicals. 

A custard base gives the ice cream a smooth texture--no ice cream machine needed.

Hollow out the lemon shells to serve as molds for the ice cream.

So good, it will briefly make you forget your woes.

Lemon Ice Cream

Helado de Limón

Serves 6.

6 lemons
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
½ cup fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
2 cups evaporated milk or light cream
½ cup sugar
Sprig of herbs (optional)

Remove a strip of zest from one of the lemons and reserve it. Cut a sliver off the bottom of the lemons so they will stand upright. Cut off the tops (stem end). Use a spoon to scoop out the flesh and juice from the lemons. Reserve it in a sieve set over a bowl. Use a thin knife or serrated grapefruit spoon to ream out the shells, scraping away all membrane. Drain the shells and reserve them.

Scrape out lemon shell.

Crush the lemon flesh in the sieve to release the juice. Press the juice through the sieve and discard the seeds and membrane. (Six lemons makes approximately 1 1/3 cups juice. You need only ½ cup juice for this recipe.)

Beat the eggs with an immersion blender. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water and stir until smooth. Blend it into the eggs with the lemon juice and salt.

In a saucepan, heat the evaporated milk with the sugar, strip of reserved lemon zest and herbs, if using, until it just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and skim out and discard the zest and herbs. With the motor running, ladle about 1 cup of the hot milk into the eggs and lemon juice in the blender. Blend until smooth.

Whisk the egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook on moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the egg-milk custard thickens, about 4 minutes. Do not allow the custard to boil or the eggs will curdle.

Cool the custard, then freeze it in an ice cream maker or in a bowl. If freezing in a bowl, take it out when partially frozen and beat it again with the immersion blender in order to break up ice crystals and whip in some air.

Set the lemon shells in a muffin tin and spoon ice cream into them. Freeze to harden. 

Set the reserved lemon shells in cups or in a muffin tin so they stand upright. Spoon the ice cream into the shells, mounding it as much as possible. Place the shells in the freezer to harden. Once they are frozen, wrap them individually in plastic wrap. 

Remove the lemon shells from the freezer to soften 15 minutes before serving. 

Lemon-Tonic Ice

Hielo de Limón con Tonica

Gin-tonic with lemon-flavored ice cubes.

This ice can be frozen in ice cube trays or in a flat pan to be scraped or crushed for granizado (granita) or slushies. The lemon-tonic cubes are perfect with gin. Or fill a tall glass with the cubes and add fizzy water to make (non-alcoholic) lemonade. Tonic water, with sugar or non-caloric “diet” soda, provides the sweetening for the ice. You may like additional sugar to balance the lemon and slight bitterness of the botanicals. The tonic water can be bubbly or flat. Besides quinine, tonic is flavored with various botanicals. As is gin, though the main ingredient is juniper berries. This ice adds emphasis to those flavors.

Fills 3 small (9 X 4 ½ -inch) ice cube trays.

Botanical flavorings.

1 ½ cups water

½ teaspoon juniper berries

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

3 cardamom pods

1-inch piece of fresh ginger

1 bay leaf

1 strip lemon zest

1 strip orange zest

3 tablespoons sugar (optional)

½ cup fresh lemon juice

2 cups tonic water (2 cans)

Place the water in a saucepan with the juniper, coriander, cardamom, ginger, bay, lemon and orange zest and sugar, if using. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cover the pan. Allow to steep until the infusion is cool.

Pour the infusion into a bowl or pitcher. Add the lemon juice and tonic water. Ladle or pour the mixture into ice cube trays or metal cake pans. Place in the freezer until solid. 

Use the ice cubes as needed in drinks. The solid-freeze in pans can be scraped or crushed for granizado (granita) or slushies.

More recipes for when life gives you lemons:

Herbal Lemonade.

Sherry-Lemon Cocktail.

Lemon Sangría with Botanicals.

Lemon Salad.

Lemon-Roasted Chicken.