Lemon gelato is an amazingly refreshing frozen dessert that will tantalize your taste buds with its fresh lemon flavor and creamy texture. Made with heavy cream and milk lets the bright, fresh lemony flavor shine through!
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To make my lemon gelato (which can be made in your ice cream maker), you need fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, heavy whipping cream, milk, and a dash of salt. No egg yolks are needed!
Gelato isn’t that much different from ice cream. The big difference is that milk is used instead of all cream, which actually makes the flavors of what you’re using stand out even more. If you find the right balance between cream and milk, you still get that rich, creamy texture that Americans have come to love about our ice cream!
Ingredients to Make Lemon Gelato
Gather the ingredients to prepare our Easy Lemon Gelato recipe. Culinary professionals call this the “Mise en Place,” which means “everything in its Place.”
Setting up your ingredients not only helps speed up the cooking process but also ensures you have all the necessary ingredients on hand to make the recipe.
*I originally made this gelato with Meyer Lemons, so either variety is good.
How to Make Lemon Gelato
Follow along with my simple step-by-step instructions to learn how to make Lemon Gelato in your home kitchen.
It’s really easy to make my version of Lemon Gelato (lemon ice cream). All you need are a few simple ingredients to make this gelato/ice cream recipe.
- Add the cream, milk, lemon juice, zest, sugar, and salt together. Using a wire whip, mix until the sugar dissolves and is completely incorporated (the mixture should thicken some).
- Pour the lemon mixture into a gelato or ice cream maker.
- Allow the mixture to freeze.
- When the gelato mixture has sufficiently frozen, place it in a container and allow the lemon gelato to freeze completely.
Can I Use an Ice Cream Maker to Make a Gelato Recipe?
Yes, you can. The difference between the two machines is gelato is churned at a much slower rate than ice cream, incorporating less air and leaving the gelato denser than ice cream.
Of course, if you don’t have a gelato maker, you can easily take my recipe for Lemon gelato and use your ice cream maker to make super creamy and delicious lemon ice cream.
So when life hands you lemons, make gelato. Your friends and family will be oh so happy that you did. Just be prepared for all the compliments and requests to make it again and again.
These are the Gelato Makers I recommend
Recipe FAQ’s
Ice cream has a higher butterfat content, which masks some of the natural flavors, where the creaminess of the ice cream is more of the star than the added flavor. Italian gelato uses less butterfat and also doesn’t whip the mixture as quickly, adding less air into the gelato. This makes the gelato denser and packs the flavor into each spoonful because of the density.
Five basic ingredients are needed to make gelato: heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt, and the flavoring you’ll be adding. Fresh fruit is my favorite added flavor when I make gelato, but you can easily make pistachio, chocolate, or any flavor you can imagine.
No, you don’t. Of course, you can make a custard-type base for your gelato using eggs, but that will require cooking the custard and allowing it to cool before freezing. The eggs will make the base richer, but eggs are not necessary for amazing gelato.
More Gelato Recipes You’ll Love!
Best Lemon Gelato Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Lemon Juice about 6 lemons
- zest from one lemon very fine
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Using a micro-planer or a very fine grater, zest one Lemon
- Cut lemons in half and juice them, straining out all the seeds.
- Add the cream, milk, lemon juice, zest, sugar and salt together and using a wire whip, mix until the sugar is dissolved and completely incorporated. (the mixture should thicken some)
- Pour the mixture into a gelato or ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Yield will be about 1 quart of lemon gelato
Jenny says
Wonderfully tart and palate cleansing! We will make this again when we can pick some fresh blueberries to mix in.
Chef Dennis Littley says
Blueberries would be a delicious addition to the gelato! I have a great strawberry gelato recipe, you can easily swap out the fruit and make blueberry or any fruit flavor you like.
Liz says
Plus the cream can I use 2% milk or do I need to use whole milk?
Chef Dennis Littley says
You can use 2% milk, it just won’t be as creamy
Dee says
I love this recipe! I have a 1.5 quart cusinart ice cream maker. Can this recipe be made by adding another 1/2 ingredients and still freeze well?
Chef Dennis Littley says
Absolutely, as long as your machine is big enough you can double or half again the ingredients
J.Scott says
This was truly the BEST gelato I’ve ever made! I added the lemon “meat” that came out of my hand juicer also. I carefully removed all the seeds. I made 1 & 1/2 of the recipe and used 8 rather small lemons. I used my Cuisinart ice-cream maker set to gelato. I’m so pleased with this recipe. It is now a family favorite! Thank You!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed one of my favorite gelatos! The lemon is so bright and fresh,
J.Scott says
Well, I experimented with this wonderful recipe again today. I didn’t have fresh limes, but I had Lakewood 100% organic lime juice. Nothing in it but the limes! Once again I made 1 & 1/2 the recipe, which my Cuisinart 2 quart ice-cream maker handles perfectly. One thing I do is mix the juice with the sugar very well before adding the other ingredients. I think that helps ensure the sugar is dissolved nicely. The lime gelato turned out very nice! I added a dollop of Wilkin & Sons Lime Curd on top of each serving. I will definitely try this again using fresh limes, but the juice worked just fine today . This is truly a great recipe that I’m so pleased I found. Thank you once again Chef Dennis!
Chef Dennis Littley says
You’re very welcome, and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe with the lime juice!