Envy almost killed me last summer.... envy of people with ice cream makers.

See, David Lebovitz's amazing ice cream book The Perfect Scoop was released last summer, and I swear that every single food blog on the entire internet was overrun by ice cream bragging and flaunting for the next six months.

Well, it's my turn, people.

After much budgeting, research, pining - and more than a little impulsiveness - I ran out and got myself both the book and the maker. See, my logic goes like this for both clothes and kitchen gadgets: divide the price by the number of times you use it, and that's the real cost. So if I use this ice cream maker 100 times - and that shouldn't be a problem - it only cost 50 cents. Perfectly rational, no?

And I am hooked. I don't even eat that much ice cream, but boy-oh-boy do I love to make it. I love that magical instant, somewhere around 15 minutes in the machine, when it goes from liquid to creamy-fluff-goodness. I love the variety of textures that fresh-made ice cream and sorbet might carry. And I love saying "I made ice cream." It just sounds awesome.

This was my first deviation from the book - deviation not in the recipe, because it's hard to deviate from just four ingredients, but my first own creation. It was inspired as much by wanting the perfect refreshing accompaniment to these cupcakes as it was by having a glut of strawberry-balsamic syrup leftover from making them.

This ice cream has an air of mystery about it. You'd expect the strawberry part to be sweet and the lemon part to be tart, but you actually get the opposite: sugared citrus balanced by tart, tangy strawberry swirl. And it's just gorgeous.

Lemon Ice Cream with Strawberry-Balsamic Swirl
Partially adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop*

Zest of 2 organic lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons worth)
2 cups half and half
Pinch of salt
1/2 recipe strawberry balsamic syrup, chilled

Put lemon zest and sugar in a blender together and process until zest is fine.** Add the lemon juice and process until the sugar has dissolved completely. Blend in salt and half-and-half until smooth. Chill for at least an hour, then process in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.


To make the swirl: Once the ice cream is fluffy and frozen, prepare your container by spreading just under 1/4 of the strawberry-balsamic syrup on the bottom. Layer in about 1/3 of the ice cream, then another layer of strawberry syrup, and so on, until you end with the a final layer of syrup. It really doesn't matter if you are perfect, but do take care not to smoosh the syrup into the lemon ice cream or you, uh, won't have a swirl anymore. Freeze and enjoy!

*Check out how short and easy this recipe is. Seriously, at least HALF of the ice cream recipes are this easy. If I had only known before...