Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream

Creamy sweet and tart lemon ice cream is swirled with beautiful blueberry sauce in this refreshing lemon blueberry ice cream. Made with fresh or frozen blueberries, you can enjoy this sunshiney taste of summer year ’round.

lemon blueberry swirl ice cream in a pan with a couple scoops in a bowl

Lemon desserts are the ultimate in the summer: bright, citrusy, and tart, they are the best at capturing that warm weather essence. And blueberries, oh blueberries. Fragrant, sweet, and a little tart themselves, there is nothing that pairs with lemon quite so well as blueberries.

This recipe is made in two parts: you create the ice cream and blueberry sauce separately. You can get a jump start on the process and make the sauce up to a day ahead of time.

The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!

lemon blueberry swirl ice cream in a pan

You don’t need to make it that far in advance, but you do need to be certain it is cold all the way through before adding it to your ice cream. When ice cream is freshly churned, it is very soft set and needs to be transferred to a container to harden (or ripen) in the freezer.

While adding the freshly churned ice cream to a freezer-safe container, you dollop the sauce in and swirl it. After it spends a couple of hours in the freezer, it’s ready to scoop, swirls and all!

lemon blueberry swirl ice cream in a pan with a scoop

Creamy blueberry ice cream is a summer treat that you simply need to taste to believe. It’s truly unforgettable. I love berries with cream together in almost any form, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ice cream like these in the store.

Blueberry ice cream has been one of my favorites for many years now. It all started with Rusconi’s blueberry ice cream with chocolate chunks that melt in your mouth with every amazing bite.

Blueberry gelato is a cross between both of those blueberry ice creams. With a simple blueberry sauce reduction stirred into the creamy vanilla base, the flavors are more intense than when using berries alone.

Servings: 6 servings

Blueberry Swirl Ingredients

Blueberry Sauce Instructions

Place the blueberries, ¼ cup sugar, cornstarch, and water in a small saucepan. Set the heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally, until the berries have softened. This should take 2-3 minutes.
Mash the berries a bit with a potato masher and stir constantly while the liquid simmers and the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and cool completely before placing in the refrigerator to chill until COLD.

Ice Cream Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and the lemon juice until completely smooth. Add the lemon zest, cream, milk, ½ cup sugar, salt, and vanilla. Whisk well to combine. Pour into your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Scoop the freshly churned ice cream into a freezer-safe container, drizzling the blueberry sauce over each scoop as you add more to the container. Place in the freezer until ready to serve.

Calories: 407kcal · Carbohydrates: 58g · Protein: 6g · Fat: 19g · Saturated Fat: 12g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g · Monounsaturated Fat: 5g · Cholesterol: 61mg · Sodium: 118mg · Potassium: 281mg · Fiber: 1g · Sugar: 54g · Vitamin A: 765IU · Vitamin C: 14mg · Calcium: 175mg · Iron: 0.3mg

With over 160 ice cream recipes here to choose from, there’s sure to be an ice cream for everyone! If you’re new to making ice cream, the best and easiest vanilla ice cream is a great place to start.

These are my favorite inexpensive containers for storing ice cream. They’re perfect for gifting (who doesn’t love homemade ice cream?) storage, re-using, etc. I write the flavors on the lids with a sharpie and it washes off with dish soap.

I have more ice cream scoops than I can keep track of at this point and I definitely play favorites. This ice cream scoop does the best job ever of cutting through firm ice cream and still delivers a pretty scoop. It gets bonus points for being one of the least expensive scoops I own as well.

Don’t miss our Ice Cream Maker Review for all the information you need to find the BEST Ice Cream Maker for your needs. Spoiler alert – our top-rated machine under $50 just might surprise you. It sure surprised me!