Lemon-Luscious Ice Cream

I've had a nice ice cream maker for over a year now, but never found an ice cream recipe that I found perfectly satisfying. Until now. The source is--oddly enough--Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie & Pastry Bible. If you have that cookbook, nearly all the recipes in it are reasonably complicated, but also consistently excellent.

The ice cream, however, is relatively easy, as far as Beranbaum's recipe's go. Here 'tis:

4 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar, divided (I used raw sugar)

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (focus on getting just the yellow as the white is bitter)

6 Tb freshly squeezed lemon juice (roughly 3 lemons)

4 Tb unsalted butter, softened

1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream + 1/2 cup milk (I substituted 2 cups half and half)

optional: 4 tsp vodka and 1/2 tsp cobasan (an emulsifier)

Have a strainer ready suspended over a medium bowl.

In a heavy saucepan, beat the yolks and 3/4 of the sugar with a wooden spoon until well blended. Stir in the lemon zest, juice, butter and salt. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens to roughly the consistency of hollandaise sauce; it should thickly coat the wooden spoon but still be liquid enough to pour (mixture will change from translucent to opaque and begin to take on a yellow color on the back of the spoon). The mixture must not be allowed to boil or it will curdle, so, if it starts to steam or boil, remove from the heat briefly and keep stirring.

When it's thickened (and it took awhile for me--5-7 minutes), pour it immediately into the strainer and push it through the strainer with the wooden spoon until only a coarse residue remains. (The residue and left over good is yummy in and of itself--it's a classic lemon curd.)

In a medium bowol, combine the cream and milk. Whisk in the sugar until dissolved. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until well chilled.

Stir in option vodka and/or cobasan and freeze in an ice cream maker.

She recommends letting the ice cream, once frozen, "ripen" in the freezer for at least two hours before serving, but if you're like me and can't wait that long, the stuff is awesome right out of the ice cream maker, though it holds its consistency wonderfully even after extended time in the freezer.

I know it sounds strange, but the best term to describe this ice cream is "lovely": lovely color, taste, and texture.

I did not add cobasan (I think it's tough to find), though I did use the vodka. (Kamchatka vodka: $3.25 a bottle at the state liquor store.) Vodka is tasteless in a recipe so the point isn't to add flavor or even to add an on-the-sly Davidson-style "kick"; rather, the alcohol lowers the freezing point of the mixture, meaning that it takes longer to freeze and the ice crystals, when they form, are smaller = better consistency, and, like I said, the consistency is divine. I'll have to try it w/o the vodka to see how it compares. I've been obsessed with consistency and this is far and away the best result yet.