Nothing beats homemade, and this Lemon Sherbet takes the cake when it comes to refreshing, sweet summer desserts!
If you love frozen desserts, try my kefir ice cream, protein milkshake and mango popsicles for more sweet treat ideas!
Recipe Quick Look: Lemon Sherbet
- Ready in: 6 hours 15 minutes
- Great for: a summer dessert
- Main Ingredients: heavy cream,milk, sugar, lemon juice and zest
- Serves: 3 people
- Difficulty: easy!
- Bonus: recipe is no-churn, so no need for an ice cream maker
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Why I Love This Recipes
- Citrus Flavor: The bright zest and lemon juice make this sherbet aaaamazing! Change it up with other citrus fruits you enjoy. I love making it with yuzu!
- No-churn: No need for an ice cream maker! All you need is a metal baking sheet, food processor and metal bread pan.
- Variety of ways to enjoy: Use this for an after dinner dessert or add a scoop to champagne for a fun mimosa spin-off
If you're also a big lemon and citrus fan, try my buttermilk lemon panckes, lavender lemonade, lemon chia seed muffins or lavender lemon cookies for more lemon sweet treat inspo!
Ingredients
- Heavy Cream
- Milk
- Lemon Juice
- Lemon Zest
- Sugar
Sugar and fat play important roles when making ice cream or sherbet. You need a decent amount of fat and sugar to lower the freezing point to prevent getting a solid block of ice.
The fat in the heavy cream and sugar will help create a smooth and scoopable texture.
The milk is like the foundation and brings everything together.
My favorite part about this recipe is the zest! It adds soooo much flavor!
The balance of sugar to lemon juice is in the middle in my opinion. It's definitely not super sweet. I love tangy, tart desserts, so it leans more towards the side of tart lemon.
If you prefer desserts sweeter, you may want to add more sugar.
Twists and Variations
Take this recipe and give it a twist!
- Mint: add fresh mint leaves into the recipes or a homemade mint simple syrup
- Basil: fresh basil leaves would go so well with the lemon
- Lime Juice: swap the lemon for lime to make it a different citrus sherbet
- Lavender: add homemade lavender syrup for a lavender lemon combo
How to Make Lemon Sherbet
Start by whisking your sugar and lemon juice together. I used lemon juice I had in the freezer (still freshly squeezed! just left over from another recipe).
You can heat the lemon juice up a bit to help the sugar dissolve.
Once the sugar is dissolved into the lemon juice, you can add the rest of the ingredients.
Once everything is mixed in well just pour it into a gallon-sized zip lock bag. Sounds weird I know - but trust me it's gonna turn into deliciousness soon!
Put the bag on a baking sheet and freeze it. Once frozen break it up into pieces - it'll look like the picture below.
It won't be frozen solid, it'll be bendable so easy to break off into pieces.
Next, put the broken up pieces into a food processor and blend away!
Once you get a smooth velvety texture - you got soft-serve sherbet. If you love soft-serve then you don't even need to continue with the recipe - just enjoy!
But if you're wanting more of a scoopable texture, get a metal bread pan out and transfer the sherbet to it.
Cover with foil, freeze and boom you got sherbet!
Serving Suggestions
Sherbet can be used in more ways than just scooping and enjoying; although, that works too!
- Punch: This reminds me of being a kid. Adding juice to sherbet is an easy way to make punch for a big gathering.
- Cocktail: Add it to champagne for a fun brunch drink! Try it with a grapefruit mimosa for more citrus flavor!
- Smoothie: Some smoothie and ice cream shops will use sherbet in their recipes. Try blending it with ice or frozen fruit to create your own version!
Recipe FAQs and Tips
Absolutely! It might be harder, but if you have a blender that is decently wide, it should be able to blend things up well.
While I haven't tried making it lactose-free, if I were to try, I would swap the heavy cream for Silk's Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream and swap the cow's milk for whatever plant milk you have on hand. The texture and flavor may be different, but let us know if you try it!
More Lemon Inspired Recipes
If you tried this Lemon Sherbet or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know your thoughts in the comments or share your creation with me on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest!
Lemon Sherbet
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup lemon juice
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- lemon zest
Instructions
- Whisk the sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add in the milk, heavy cream and zest and stir to combine.
- Pour the mixture into a gallon sized bag and squeeze out as much air as possible when closing the bag.
- Place the bag on a metal baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 4-6 hours or until frozen.
- Take the sherbet out of the bag and break the slab up into pieces.
- Put the pieces of frozen sherbet in a food processor and blend until smooth. Enjoy now if you prefer soft-serve! Otherwise, scoop sherbet into a metal bread pan, cover and freeze to solidify it more.
Notes
- Recipe makes 3 small ½ cup servings. I would recommend doubling the recipe if you want bigger serving sizes.
- The recipe is not overly sweet. You can taste the tangy lemon. If you prefer sweeter desserts, you may want to add more sugar.
Nutrition
(Nutrition values are calculated by third-party software and an estimate that can vary based on product brands and cooking methods.)
Joan Dean says
What % mf should be used for the milk?
Monica Nedeff says
Hi Joan! Thanks for the question. I wanted to test it to double check before responding, so thank you for your patience but any percent milk fat for the milk is okay! 1% milk works just fine. Of course, using whole milk will produce a creamier, smoother texture but any milk should suffice. Hope you enjoy!
Cindy says
Can you use a glass pan instead of metal?
Monica Nedeff says
You can use glass! The metal just helps the sherbet freeze faster.