Pink Lemonade Ice Cream

About a year ago I saw a billboard advertising what I thought was lemonade ice cream. Turns out it was merely advertising the fact that the store sold both lemonade and ice cream but was by no means suggesting that you try and combine the two. Unfortunate, because since then the idea of lemonade ice cream has haunted me. It wasn't until I got my own ice cream maker that I was able to finally do something about that.

I happened to have a nearly full can of pink lemonade concentrate left over after another recipe so I made no changes to the ice cream recipe to compensate. Which was probably a good move because my husband found the ice cream to be very tart. I too found it to be tart but also very sweet, so aside from adding even less lemonade concentrate I can't think of a way to solve that. Not that I necessarily think it needs solving. This is an ice cream that's best eaten in small doses, which is just as well since I only have time to work out once a day. It would take a miracle to keep my waistline in check if I feasted on huge portions of ice cream and cupcakes all the time, as I'm sure all you bakers out there understand.

I did make a few changes to the recipe by substituting skim milk for whole milk, which I think was a fine move since part of the reason I want to make my own ice cream is to control what ingredients go in. Plus it's all I had on hand. It still turned out nice and creamy. I was also surprised by the large amount of almond extract called for (one tablespoon!) and reduced that to a much more reasonable one teaspoon, which I again think worked just fine although you might want to experiment with adding more to taste.

To prevent the same cruel fate from befalling this batch of ice cream, I added a few helpful notes to the lid of the container so my husband would remember to put this back in the freezer, not the refrigerator as he did no fewer than three times with the banana ice cream. Let's hope it works. For his sake...

Pink Lemonade Ice Cream
Adapted from Finding Inspiration In Food

1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups milk (whole, skim, whatever you have on hand)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 can pink lemonade concentrate
pinch of salt
3 drops red food color, if desired for a darker pink look

Whisk together all ingredients and chill covered in fridge at least 20 minutes. Process in ice cream maker per manufacturer’s directions. The mixture will not be completely hard. To finish, put mixture into a lidded container and allow to harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.