Lemon, orange, banana homemade ice cream is simply my favorite homemade ice cream! If you're a citrus lover, this ice cream is for you. It's full of the refreshing flavors of lemon and orange with just a hint of banana. This is the perfect summertime dessert.

My lifetime favorite ice cream!

I've been making this ice cream since I was a teen. The recipe is from my good friend Vicki's mom, Dixie Larson. It's the only ice cream I ever made for at least a couple of decades! Just the best, and that was that! The night of my high school graduation, I made this ice cream for friends. After blending all the ingredients, I prepared the ice and rock salt and got it all going on our back patio. A few hours later the motor burned up. Ooops--I had forgotten to add the dasher.

Why the dasher is important in an ice cream maker

As you can imagine, the dasher (white plastic paddle above) was an essential item. When the dasher turns, it makes the ice cream smoother by scraping the sides of the canister and breaking up ice crystals. Well, we didn't have ice cream that night, and I have never made that mistake again.

Lemons, oranges and bananas, Oh my!

So, back to making this delectable dessert. We like to add five lemons, plus the zest of two lemons to our ice cream mixture. Next, we juice four oranges, plus the zest of two oranges. The zest just adds flavor you can't get from anything else. We use one banana. Bananas can be strong in recipes, but adding one to this recipe seems to give it the perfect balance of freshness and flavor.

How to make lemon orange banana homemade ice cream!

Make sure to remove any seeds from the citrus juices. Next, place all ingredients in blender and mix until well blended, then pour ingredients into 4 quart ice cream maker/freezer.

Follow the manufacturers directions to freeze the ice cream. You'll need about 10 pounds of ice and a couple of cups of rock salt. So be prepared! When the ice cream is done, check the dasher. Do you see the little crumbles on the right side of the dasher above? That's the flavorful zest. Remove dasher and scrape off any zest sticking to it. Then stir the zest into the ice cream immediately to distribute that yummy flavor.

This recipe makes 2 ½ to 3 quarts of ice cream. You can serve it straight out of the ice cream maker, or pack it in ice until ready to serve. Here are a few ice cream making tips to share with you:

Tips for Making Ice Cream

Chill canister of ice cream maker in the refrigerator while making the ice cream mixture.
Place the ice cream maker in a plastic tub or other container to catch any leaking salt water (translation: the salt water could ruin your grass or concrete).
Layer ice and rock salt around canister in bucket. You should have a ratio of about 7 parts ice to 1 part salt. Ice should reach top of canister.
Add additional ice and salt if your ice melts to keep ice level at top of canister.

Try making some of this heavenly stuff before the summer's over. It really is the best!

Enjoy!

Dianna

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