No-Churn Lemon Lime Ice Cream

Well, the inevitable has happened. Summer has arrived with full force bringing with it maximum heat, sticky humidity and general discomfort. So as with every year, I fight back with my army of kitchen utensils and a host of yummy ingredients to help me survive the summer heat. 

If you're one of those who happen to live in extreme heat like myself, get yourself a bowl of ice cream to help cool you down. It definitely helps and I should know. I just made a batch of it myself and the great thing about this recipe is that it doesn't require anything other than simple ingredients. In other words, no ice cream maker necessary! How cool is that for ya?

Keep scrolling down as the recipe is waaaay down at the bottom of this post. ;)

Today was an exceptionally hot day and on days like these, there's nothing more refreshing than lemons. Add some lime to the mix and this lemon-lime ice cream is like a dip in the ocean. Just tastier!

This is quite simply the easiest ice cream recipe that I know of. You start of with one of the simplest ingredients, which is sugar. For today's version, I chose to go with some icing sugar instead of the regular kind, just to see if that made a difference in texture. 

After thoroughly washing my lemons and lime clean, I added the lemon zest. Obviously I don't have a proper zester ( I promise to get one soon ) so I'm using this really sad one.

I also need the zest of one lime. Of course I could have just gone with lemons but the addition of lime adds a hint of limey bitterness. Just a hint. It really makes a difference believe me. 

After zesting my citrus fruits ( 1 lemon & 1 lime ), I add it to the icing sugar like this.

Now, I just need the juice of two fresh lemons. With a tad bit of embarrassment, here I show you how I juice my lemons with my very humble one-lemon-at-a-time-old-fashioned-manual juicer from the 100 yen store.

After the lemons, I squeeze out the juice from two limes. I know all this work looks tedious and gives the illusion of lots of work but believe me, it's easy peasy. My huge photos just make it look harder than it actually is I assure you.

Next, just add the citrus juices into the bowl of icing sugar.

If you juiced your fruits properly, this is what they should look like now. I'm thinking about saving these peels for something, but not really sure what for. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

Using a whisk, mix the juices and the sugar together until well combined. At this point, you could just stop here and mix this in with some cold soda water to make a refreshing lemon-lime drink. But you're going to make ice cream right? In that case, let's move on shall we?

You'll need 2 cups of heavy cream. If you live in the UK, you would use double cream but you want a cream that's at least 40% milk fat if you want the creamiest results.

Add the heavy cream into the sugar/juice mixture and beat until soft peaks form. At first I thought I could manage with a hand-held whisk but decided to change to use my electric hand mixer as I really wanted to get this done before day's end.

Once that's done, put the contents into a shallow container that comes with an air-tight container. Freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably 5.

This is what your ice cream should look like after 5 hours in the freezer. Due to the sugar and fat content, it doesn't freeze into a hard object, even after frozen overnight.  The bits of lemon and lime zest is absolutely stunning combined with the creaminess of the ice cream. 

And finally here is the recipe! You deserve it especially since I made you scroll all the way down here.

Ingredients

2 lemons

2 limes

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 cups heavy cream

Directions

1.Grate the zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime. 

2.Squeeze the juices of 2 lemons and 2 limes. Add to the bowl of icing sugar. 

3.Mix with a whisk until well combined. 

4.Add the heavy cream into the mixture. Whip with electric beater until soft peaks form. 

5.Pour into shallow air-tight container with lid. 

6.Cover and freeze for 3-5 hours. 

Bon Appetit!

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