If you crossed lemon meringue pie with ice cream, this is exactly what you would get! Dreamy, creamy vanilla ice cream swirled with tangy lemon curd, buttery bits of shortbread, and chunks of meringue…what’s not to love? I have a soft spot for bright & creamy lemony desserts in the summer, and this ice cream ticks all the boxes.
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What Is Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream?
Lemon meringue pie ice cream is a riff on the classic dessert, made with an egg-free creamy vanilla ice cream base swirled with lemon curd and dotted with crunchy bits of meringue and buttery shortbread. It’s everything you love about the classic pie, but in ice cream form! Thanks to some simple stabilizers in the ice cream base and lemon curd, this will stay scoopable straight from the freezer for weeks—if it even lasts that long!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- It tastes just like lemon meringue pie. Bright tangy lemon balanced with sweet meringue, and buttery shortbread “pie crust” in every bite.
- No eggs required. The base uses a couple easy-to-find stabilizers that will keep the base perfectly scoopable straight from the freezer.
- The perfect summer dessert that’s bright, refreshing, creamy, and crunchy all at the same time.
- Make-ahead friendly with components that can be made in advance.
- A freezer-friendly lemon curd that stays soft and scoopable, instead of freezing hard.
If you like making ice cream, you should check out my Moon Mist ice cream recipe!
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream
For the Ice Cream Base
- Sugar adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point of the ice cream, keeping it scoopable
- Salt enhances the
- Milk adds protein to the ice cream, and balances out the richness from the heavy cream.
- Heavy cream adds fat, carries flavour, and smooths out the texture of the ice cream.
- Xanthan gum is a stabilizer prevents ice crystals from forming in the ice cream, which helps it keep a nice and scoopable texture straight from the freezer. If you can’t find any, you can leave it out—the corn starch & corn syrup also help stabilize the ice cream.
- Corn starch absorbs excess water in the ice cream, preventing large ice crystals from forming. It also adds body and creaminess without needing egg yolks.
- Corn syrup lowers the freezing point of the mixture, which also works to improve the texture and scoopability of the ice cream.
- Vanilla extract
For the Lemon Curd
- Lemon juice and zest are both used to flavour the lemon curd.
- Egg yolks add richness and help thicken and stabilize the curd, offset the sharpness of the lemon juice, and emulsify the lemon juice with the butter to form a lusciously smooth mixture.
- Sugar doesn’t just make the curd sweeter—it prevents the egg yolks from cooking, and helps the curd thicken more evenly and hold its structure
- Corn syrup isn’t typically used in lemon curd. It’s used in this recipe so the curd stays soft and scoopable in the freezer.
- Butter adds richness and makes the curd luxuriously smooth.
For the Meringue Bits
- Egg whites form the main structure of the meringue, trapping large volumes of air in its protein.
- Sugar adds sweetness, and also plays a major role in stabilizing the meringue during whipping and helping it dry out properly during baking.
- Corn starch absorbs moisture, leading to a crispier meringue—essential for meringue bits that will be mixed into ice cream!
- Cream of tartar or lemon juice help the proteins in egg whites unfold more slowly and bond more evenly, which results in a more stable meringue
- Salt enhances the flavour and also tightens the protein bonds in the meringue, helping make it more stable.
How to Keep Your Meringue Crunchy
- Bake them low and slow. The key to meringue that stays crunchy in ice cream is to dry it out as much as possible. Bake at 200˚F (95˚C) for 1½ to 2 hours, and leave them in the oven with the door cracked as it cools down.
- The cornstarch in this recipe helps absorb moisture to keep the meringues crisp for longer.
- Keep them in an airtight container until just before you fold them into the ice cream, so the meringues don’t absorb moisture from the air.
- Fold the bits into the ice cream just before it goes into the freezer.
For the Buttery Shortbread Crunch
- Butter provides the main flavour in the shortbread crunch, and binds it together.
- All-purpose flour provides structure
- Sugar sweetens the shortbread mixture
- Cornstarch softens the dough, making the shortbread crunch almost melt on your tongue.
- Salt enhances the flavour
- Vanilla extract provides complex and warm flavour notes
Use Storebought Mix-Ins
You don’t have to make all of the mix-ins from scratch! You can use store-bought shortbread cookies (crushed into bits), meringue cookies or nests (crush those, too), and even store-bought lemon curd. Just note that store-bought lemon curd might freeze harder than this recipe that was specially formulated for use in ice cream. If you use store-bought lemon curd, drizzle it in in small bits.
About Ice Cream Makers
You’ll need an ice cream maker to make this recipe, or you can try the no-churn version below. Ice cream makers stir (or churn) the ice cream base while freezing it at at the same time. This prevents large ice crystals from forming, which along with using the right proportion of ingredients in the base will result in a beautifully creamy ice cream. You can get an inexpensive ice cream maker that requires you to freeze a canister for 24 hours in advance, or splurge on a more expensive ice cream maker that is like a mini-freezer, with its own compressor on board.
No Ice Cream Maker? Try this No-Churn Ice Cream Base!
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, try this no churn recipe for the base. Use the recipe at the end of the post for the lemon curd, meringue, and short bread crunch.
Whip 2 cups of cold heavy whipping cream to stiff peaks. Pour a 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk into a medium mixing bowl, and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the zest of one lemon. and fold in one-third of the whipped cream to lighten it up, then gently fold in the remaining whipped cream.
Freeze for a few hours until it’s about the texture of soft-serve ice cream, swirl in some lemon curd, and fold in some meringue and shortbread bits until evenly distributed. Return to the freezer until firm.
Make Ahead & Storage Tips
You can make all of the components in advance, so it’s easy to work this recipe into your schedule!
- The ice cream base can be prepared and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 24 hours before churning.
- The lemon curd can be stored in the fridge for up to a week before using in the ice cream.
- The shortbread and meringue bits can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Store the ice cream in an airtight container in the freezer, with a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface. Store it towards the back of the freezer, where temperature fluctuations (which can affect the texture of your ice cream) are less likely.
FAQs
Yes! Break up shortbread or meringue into pieces small enough to fold into the ice cream. Store-bought lemon curd might freeze solid— drizzle it into the ice cream in small amounts so it doesn’t freeze into large chunks.
Bake it low and slow to dry it out as much as possible, and fold it into the ice cream just before it goes into the freezer.
Standard lemon curd contains a fair bit of water (lemon juice) which will freeze quite solid. This lemon curd recipe was specially-formulated to work perfectly in ice cream. The addition of corn syrup lowers its freezing point and keeps it soft enough so it stays perfectly scoopable straight from the freezer.
This should keep for at least 3 weeks in the freezer. After that, it should still be safe to eat but the meringue and shortbread may lose their crunch.
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