Lemon Ricotta Ice Cream (#55-E)

Thank you Vancouver for promising me a week of sunshine!!!

Sunshine, sunshine, nothing but sunshine!

What better way to embrace spring sunshine than with a bright, citrus-y ice cream flavour?  Lemon Ricotta Ice Cream has been on my to-make list for months now, but the dark, dreary days of winter called for richer flavours.  Now that spring is in the air, it’s time to re-introduce lighter, fruitier flavours to the 52 Scoops repertoire.

This ice cream recipe is egg-free and super simple.  No cooking required!  Just pour the ingredients into a blender, give it a whirl, and you’re pretty much good to go.

The ice cream turned out light and fresh, sweet and tangy — absolutely delicious!  Texture wise, the ricotta cheese makes the ice cream a little more crumbly / flaky compared to other 52 Scoops recipes, so let it warm up ever so slightly before scooping and serving.  Enjoy it on its own or try serving it with a couple of shortbread cookies on the side.

Lemon Ricotta Ice Cream (Makes about 1.25 L)

3/4 to 1 cup white sugar
1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese (I used 10% M.F.)
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind (3 to 4 lemons)
Pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups half-and-half cream

Blueberry Lemon Basil Ice Cream (#20)

I was hoping to get this post up earlier, but I ran into some technical difficulties a couple of days ago: I discovered that my Donvier Chillfast cylinder, which I normally store in the freezer, wasn’t frozen solid and icy cold, but was melty and sloshing around!  How could that be?!  I had turned down the freezer to its coldest setting the night before to make sure the cylinder would be as cold as possible.  Was my freezer on the fritz?  The cylinder itself?  Luckily, it was neither.  It turned out that the Official Taster was in a pinch to quickly chill two kegs of beer and had grabbed the Chillfast cylinder and submerged it in a tubful of water, along with the kegs and a couple bags of ice cubes.  Official Taster, you owe me some extra dish washing for this.  Surely the ice cubes alone would have been sufficient!  So, this set me back half a day while I re-froze the cylinder.  On the upside though, my custard had some extra time to “age” in the fridge.

Week #20’s flavour came to me when I was shopping at my local produce store.  Blueberries!  Only $1.89/lb!  That’s about as cheap as U-pick, with all the picking done for you!  Blueberries pair well with so many different flavours – cinnamon, cardamom, basil, thyme, orange, and lemon to name a few.  I had a hard time deciding between blueberry-basil and blueberry-lemon, so I figured I’d develop an ice cream recipe containing all three.  So here we have Blueberry Lemon Basil Ice Cream: blueberry compote infused with lemon and basil, dolloped between layers of lemon basil ice cream.

The blueberry compote, along with a big spoonful of ricotta cheese, would be a great topping for waffles!

Alternating layers of ice cream with random dollops of compote creates a marbled effect that allows the creamy yellow colour of the ice cream to be retained.  Marbling also lets you enjoy the subtle flavours of the lemon basil ice cream on its own as well as with the occasional mouthful of blueberry goodness.  Another option is to swirl the blueberry compote into the ice cream in the final stages of churning, similar to Week 13’s Rhubarb Ginger Ice Cream and Week 16’s Strawberry Rhubarb Ice Cream.  This would result in a purple-blue ice cream with berries evenly distributed throughout.  Either way, Blueberry Lemon Basil Ice Cream makes for a perfect summer treat!

Blueberry compote marbled into lemon basil ice cream.

Blueberry Lemon Basil Ice Cream  (Makes about 1.25 L)

Ice Cream

2 eggs
3/4 cups white sugar
1 tbsp finely chopped lemon zest
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 cups half-and-half cream

Blueberry Compote (makes about 1.5 cups)

2 1/2 cups of blueberries, divided
1/3 c sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream (#2)

My boss has the most bizarre microclimate in his backyard.  Although Vancouver is listed as being in Zone 8a using the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, he is, somehow, able to grow Zone 9b to 10 plants — plants that would normally grow in places like California or Florida.  These include: acai berries, bananas, feather palms, ginger, pomegranate, and Satsuma oranges.  His subtropical green thumb extends to the plant life in his office.  Check out this Meyer lemon plant on his windowsill.  It bears fruit.  Actual fruit!

Meyer lemon plant with full sized fruit

For those unfamiliar with Meyer lemons, they are the sweeter cousin of the lemons you usually see, which are also known as Eureka lemons.  Meyers are thought to be a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange — hence their sweeter taste and slightly rounder shape.  The other morning, I came into work to find my boss had snipped a fruit off his plant and had left it on my desk.  Perfect!  That, along with a bunch of Meyers I picked up from Granville Island over the weekend, yielded enough juice for a delightfully sweet and tart batch of Meyer Lemon Ice Cream.  If you can’t find Meyer lemons, regular lemons will do just as well in this recipe.

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream (makes about 1 pint)

Adapted from Epicurious

1 tablespoon lemon zest (about 4 lemons)
1/2 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla