Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

Let me preface this post by saying this is one of the most delicious homemade ice creams I’ve eaten, full stop. I was scrolling merrily through the various and sundry posts pre Passover on different foodie groups I belong to and espied this recipe posted by Estee from one of the groups (I cannot remember which) and I said, hmm, love lemon, like meringue and ice cream (non dairy or dairy as you please) is a lovely light ending to a meal, usually punctuated by heavy meaty dishes. So, I made the recipe, written by Nicola Fine, exactly as stated, faithfully following the instructions. (I so rarely do this, usually changing things up). But the second time I made the recipe, I did make a number of changes in order to simplify things (always my goal if possible) and not to negatively impact the flavor. Since personally, I don’t like the idea of browned meringue in an ice cream texture wise (she doesn’t brown it but does bake it for 5 minutes) I simply didn’t bake it at all thereby simplifying the recipe considerably. Now if you insist on the browning of the meringue, I would just place it under the broiler for a coupla minutes and that’s that, otherwise I see no purpose in baking it at all. You simply freeze the whole lot but in two layers, one on top of the other with a light hand, easy peasy.

I used pasteurized egg whites and yolks (separate cartons) since I have a pregnant daughter in law and my mom’s in her 90s so I wouldn’t chance using regular raw eggs. Once you do this, it’s so easy to put together it’s almost embarrassing. Everyone who ate it loved it. The most hilarious comment was from my grandson Yishai, who said, Savta is it vanilla ice cream (the top is white, after all) and I said no, lemon. He said, too bad, I really prefer vanilla and hmm maybe I won’t eat it. I said, sure, as you please but it’s really good, trust me. (He generally does trust me, picky eater tho’ he is). So he reluctantly accepted a portion and snuck back over 5 minutes later and said, well it’s not vanilla but can I have some more? Nuff said, if picky eater number 2 (Eliyah is picky eater number 1 and he ate it too!!) snorfed it down and asked for seconds, you know you have a winner!

So gather your ingredients:

As you can see, there are 5 ingredients to the whole thing (if you separate your own eggs, 4!). Good. Now get your egg white thing going on. I whipped them first since then you don’t have to wash out the bowl to whip the yolks and if you do it the other way (yolks first) you must wash and dry out the bowl. But! you do need an additional bowl into which you will scoop the whipped egg whites, just sayin’. K. Place the whites into the bowl and start whipping at high speed.

Now I’m gonna include a pic from a different recipe just to show the starting look of the whites:

They start getting foamy looking and then start whitening up

Keep going till they start to look thick and meringue-y like so:

Now scoop ’em out and place in clean bowl. Into same bowl as you beat the whites, place the yolks and the sugar (there are two separate lots of sugar, one for the whites, one for the yolks and yes, you need both).

You are whipping them with the same ferocity as you whipped the whites with the sugar. This will cause the yolks to lighten and lift in volume.

Once they’ve risen and are thickened, add the cream/non-dairy cream and continue to whip till the volume increases and the mixture is thick.

After adding the lemon juice, continue whipping the mixture till fluffy about an additional 3-5 minutes. This should be the final look of the mixture.

See how thick and creamy? K. Now pour into two 10 inch circular pans which you lightly oil (for ease of scooping and serving).

You will fill up about half of the pan, perhaps a bit more. Don’t pour more into the pan, since you remember you still have your meringue topping to put on but also, you will cover it tightly with the tin foil and don’t want it to touch the top and ruin the surface. So take your bowl of whipped whites and dividing in half, dollop onto the lemon mixture.

Now with a light hnad, gently swirl the whites all about the top to cover.

This will not be a huge coating so don’t worry if it seems skimpier than the yellow, it’s supposed to be. This was another change I made, less whites to yolks. If using the pasteurized eggs, quantities are easy, you are not left with extra whites or yolks to use up. Freeze the covered mixture till frozen throughout. Now if you wish, you may brown the meringue lightly on low broil after frozen but I don’t like the texture, so I don’t do it. Serve this in pretty scoops to your delighted guest, even those who wanted vanilla!! 🙂 .

Lemon Meringue Ice Cream 

A note, for those who want to use regular eggs, simply use 10-12 egg yolks and half the number of egg whites. I do, in fact have recipes for egg white based cookies and such on the blog. One such is Chocolate Dipped Almond Horns

(check on your cartons, each one has different amounts per yolk or white, but mine was 1/2-3/4 cup of whites; 1 cup of yolks)

5-6 pasteurized egg whites

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

10-12 egg pasteurized egg yolks

1 1/4 cups (250 grams) sugar 

650 ml (2 3/4 cups) cream or non-dairy cream, unwhipped

1 cup (240 ml) lemon juice 

Directions:

Beat the whites with 3/4 cups of sugar till stiff. Scoop out and place in separate bowl. Beat yolks with 1 1/4 cups sugar until thick, very light in color and creamy and add cream and continue beating until whipped and thick. Keep beating and add lemon juice beating another few minutes. Mixture should be quite thick but pourable. Pour lemon mixture into 2 greased 10 inch round baking tins and then with a light hand, gently dollop the whipped whites dividing evenly on top of both pans of lemon mixture, taking care to swirl on top and not mix into lemon mixture till all the top is covered. Cover carefully with foil, try not to touch topping. Freeze till firm. Serve from freezer in scoops.