Sunday, September 9, 2012

When Life Gives You a Lemon, make Gelato

Yesterday I had a 'veg day'.  No, I didn't eat only vegetarian food.   I 'vegged' out.  (sp?)

It had been a busy week.  I put in the new planting area.  Cut the grass twice!  (That's what happens when you have cool nights.  The grass grows.)  I cleaned up fading flowers in the beds.  Trimmed one of my linden trees and cut back an overgrown climbing rose that had already dropped its leaves.  Whew!

Along with having gone to my three weekly yoga classes, I was beat.  And then with the storm coming, the arthritis I have was acting up.  Once the rain got here, the pounding of it on the deck behind my bedroom did not allow for a good night's sleep on Friday.

So, I got up yesterday morning and decided not to do much of anything.  Not that I wasn't busy.  I vacuumed the house and cleaned the floors, ran the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen.

In the process I noticed one lonely lemon in the fridge.  I had a hankering for some ice cream, but had none in the house, so I settled for some yogurt.  I had the fixing's for lemon ice cream, but my freezer is so full, I had no way to squeeze the ice cream freezer into it if I did make ice cream.

I opted to find a recipe for something not requiring an ice cream freezer.  I have a great one for strawberry ice cream made with evaporated milk, but I have no milk in the house.  I did have the lemon and cream, so why not a gelato?  I also had some limoncello I could add.

Finding a recipe that did not require eggs and cooking was not easy.  I wanted a pure creamy, sugary, sour delight.  I think I found it.

Only having one large lemon meant I was only making a small batch.  OK, since if it didn't turn out I would not have lost a lot of ingredients.  And I would still have to wait for it to chill overnight.

Here is what I did, with my comments:

Limoncello Gelato  (there are several incarnations of this on the internet)

Ingredients:

One very large lemon  (if using those small store lemons, use two)
2 1/4 ounces sifted confectioner's sugar  (weighing is important here)
5 ounces heavy cream
1 Tbsp Limoncello

Sift confectioner's sugar and measure out 2 1/4 ounces on a kitchen scale.  Place in bowl.

Zest the lemon so that it is finely zested and place in bowl.  Juice the lemon to remove all juices and place in bowl.  Whisk until sugar dissolves and allow to sit for 30 minutes. 

In another bowl, add cream and Limoncello.  Whip until soft peaks form.  Carefully whisk cream into sugar mixture until combined.

Place in freezer-safe container and freeze overnight.

Serve.

 
 
If diet is not a consideration, you can get two of the servings shown in the picture.  For me, one scoop is all I need.

2 comments:

  1. This looks fabulous. I'm having a veg day today -- don't count a visit to the hairdresser as work -- and I'm so happy for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for telling me about this recipe. It looks delicious! I'll give it a try.

    ReplyDelete

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