I love making homemade ice cream, but, when it’s super hot, no one wants to be standing over the stove, stirring custard, right? Enter: this 3-Ingredient, No-Churn, Lime Ice Cream.

For this ice cream, I was inspired by Brazilian Lemonade (also known as Swiss Lemonade, I believe!), in which whole limes are blended with ice, sugar, water and condensed milk to make a refreshing summer drink (though it can, apparently, be quite bitter if the limes are blended for too long). The combination of double cream and condensed milk is a tried-and-true base for no-churn ice cream (I learned about it from biggerbolderbaking.com!), but I usually find it a little too sweet for my liking. Thus, the idea to combine the concept of Brazilian Lemonade with a no-churn ice cream was born (after all, both contain condensed milk): you don’t have to worry about it being too sweet, because the sour, (potential) bitterness of the lime tempers the sweetness a little bit, and you don’t have to worry about it being too bitter, because the sweetness of the condensed milk tempers that too!

Overall, it’s a match made in heaven: 3 ingredients, super quick and easy to make and the perfect balance of flavours to cool you down as we enter the final stages of summer. Because of the similarities in ingredients, this ice cream tastes pretty much exactly like a slice of key lime pie, just frozen (and without the biscuit base, though you could absolutely remedy that by topping your scoops with some crumbled up digestives!).

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Making the Ice Cream
• No-Churn vs Regular Ice Cream
• Recipe

Ingredients

As the name suggests, this ice cream only requires 3 ingredients:

• Limes

You’ll be using whole limes for this recipe (rind and all!) so I’d recommend using unwaxed ones.

• Double cream

You want your cream to be very cold, so use it straight from the fridge. If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Condensed milk

I use Carnation condensed milk, which is the most common, readily-available brand in the UK. It comes in 397g tins and you’ll need a whole tin for this recipe. Just like the cream, you want the condensed milk to be cold, so chill it in the fridge for at least an hour before using it.

Equipment

This is a no-churn ice cream recipe, so you don’t need an ice cream maker for it! You do, however, need the following pieces of equipment:

• Blender

Confession: I don’t actually own a freestanding blender (what can I say? I’m just not a smoothie girl…). I do, however, have an immersion blender (go figure), which works just as well here (even if it requires a little bit more effort). Either one will work, but you will need some type of blending apparatus to blitz the limes up!

• Electric whisk

Okay, so you could make this recipe with a hand whisk but it will take a lot of elbow grease! An electric whisk will make this process much faster and less like a workout routine. I used my freestanding electric mixer, but an electric hand whisk would work just as well.

• Freezer containers

You can use any freezer-safe container to store your ice cream in, but I love using these kraft paper pint tubs (mainly because I love the whimsy of making my own pints of ice cream, but also because I can easily label the tubs with a permanent marker!). This recipe makes enough ice cream to fill about 2 1/2 of the 16oz tubs (annoying, I know, but not annoying enough to warrant using an extra 1/5 tin of condensed milk).

Making the Ice Cream

Now it’s time to make the ice cream (and it’s a super easy process)!

Start by chopping up your limes. We’ll be using the whole fruit in this recipe, but, to make it easier for your blender, you want to chop them up a little first! I like to take a little off each end of the limes beforehand, just to remove the woody stalk/excess pith.

Then, chop each lime into about 8 pieces (or whatever you fancy, it’s up to you and the strength of your blender!).Place all of your lime pieces into your blender (or, if you’re using an immersion blender like me, a strong, tall, thin container like this WECK jar is ideal).

Then, blend away! Don’t worry too much about over-blending the limes and releasing their bitterness, because there’s a lot of condensed milk in this recipe to counteract any bitterness.

Blend until you have a lime-y pulp, then strain that pulp through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on it with the back of a spoon to release all of the juices (if you want, you can go back and blend the leftover pulp from the sieve again to get even more juice, which is what I did!).

You’ll be left with a green liquid that has the consistency of regular lime juice, but a much more vibrant green colour and a more opaque appearance (so it’s lime juice with oomph!).

Set the lime juice aside and place the double cream in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer (or just a large bowl, if you’re using a handheld mixer).

Whisk on medium-high speed until the cream reaches soft peaks.

While the cream is whipping, add the cold condensed milk to the lime juice and stir it well to combine. When it’s cold, condensed milk becomes extra thick and sticky, and it will thicken up even more when it’s mixed with the lime juice, but don’t worry: that’s how it’s supposed to be!

Once the cream is ready, add the lime/condensed milk mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer.

Use a large spatula to fold the condensed milk mixture in. I like to do this to ensure everything is fully combined before I start the second whisking.

Once everything is incorporated, whisk the whole thing again on high speed until the mixture reaches stiff peaks. This won’t take very long (usually less than 30 seconds), so be careful not to over-whip the mixture, as this will cause the cream to split.

Once the mixture reaches stiff peaks, you can transfer it to your freezer containers, label them (always an important step for freezer storage, I find!) and stash them away in the freezer overnight, before enjoying! The ice cream will keep in the freezer for about 6 weeks.

This is a pretty firm-set ice cream, so I recommend taking it out of the freezer and letting it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before scooping (and, if needed, using a slightly warm ice cream scoop) to make the process super easy!

No-Churn vs Regular Ice Cream

Okay, look: no-churn ice cream is never going to be exactly the same as a regular, custard-based ice cream. The ingredients are completely different and the method is even more different, so these two frozen treats are, well, different.

I find that no-churn ice creams are usually sweeter (it’s inevitable, with all that condensed milk!) and more firmly set when frozen than their custard-based counterpart. The textural difference is most notable when the two ice creams melt: with regular ice cream, you get a thin, milky custard. With this no-churn ice cream, you get a thick cream (reminiscent of softly whipped cream), which my mind cannot comprehend, but, truthfully, is still enjoyable. Both ice cream styles are creamy and smooth (not icy, as you might expect with a no-churn ice cream), but they’re creamy in different ways: this no-churn ice cream feels like smooth, frozen cream, whereas regular ice cream tastes like smooth, frozen custard. It’s just personal preference which one you enjoy more!

For me, it’s hard to beat the taste, texture and general deliciousness of regular ice cream, but it is kind of labour-intensive to make: you make the custard, cool the custard, churn the custard, then, finally, wait for the whole thing to freeze. With no-churn ice cream, you whisk everything up and freeze it: that’s it! If you’re in a hurry, have limited free time/energy or just want a sweet, frozen treat as soon as possible, no-churn ice cream is your friend.

Recipe

Print

3-Ingredient, No-Churn Lime Ice Cream

Inspired by Brazilian Lemonade, this no-churn recipe tastes like a slice of Key Lime Pie and uses whole, blended limes to give the ice cream an extra zesty kick!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, Brazilian

Keyword 3 ingredient, Ice cream, Lime, no-bake, No-churn

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Freeze Time: 12 hours hours

Total Time 12 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2.5 pints

Equipment

• 1 Blender (see Note 1).
• 1 Electric whisk (handheld or freestanding).
• Freezer-safe containers.

Ingredients

• 4 limes
• 450 ml double cream, cold.
• 397 g condensed milk, cold (see Note 2).

Instructions

• Slice the ends off of the limes, then chop each lime into 8 pieces. Place the lime chunks into a blender, then blend until you have a chunky lime pulp.
• Strain the pulp through a fine mesh sieve, catching the green liquid in a jug/bowl below. Press down on the pulp to extract all of the juice. If desired, return the remaining pulp to the blender and blend/strain again to get even more juice.
• Whisk the cream to soft peaks.
• Mix the cold condensed milk into the lime juice. It will thicken up considerably, but that is okay!
• Fold the condensed milk mixture into the softly whipped cream until incorporated. Then, whisk the whole mixture again until it forms stiff peaks. Be careful not to over-whip.
• Transfer the ice cream mixture to your freezer containers and freeze overnight before serving. Allow to sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before scooping and serving. Stored in the freezer, the ice cream will keep for about 6 weeks.

Notes

Notes:

1. You can use a regular, freestanding blender or an immersion blender for this. If using an immersion blender, place the lime chunks into a strong, tall, thin jar/jug/cup before blending, to make the process easier. 
2. Cold condensed milk makes for the best no-churn ice cream, so make sure to chill the condensed milk in the fridge for at least an hour before using it. 

The Roland-Garros macaron is a lime & galangal-flavoured macaron (which is kind of wacky, so I was EXTRA intrigued). The shells are tinted a deep yellow shade and decorated with an orange Roland-Garros logo (which I assume is printed onto the shells using an edible printer?). Unfortunately, I don’t think you can buy this particular macaron in the UK, so, of course, I decided to make my own version.

There’s not a whole lot of information out there on the exact composition of the macarons, so I just took the flavour combination (and a lot of creative licence) and ran with it! This recipe, therefore, is my personal take on lime & galangal macarons, inspired by the official Roland-Garros 2024 macaron by Ladurée.

Table of Contents

• Lime & Galangal Macarons: The Breakdown
• Ingredients
• Making the Yellow Macaron Shells
• Making the Lime & Galangal Filling
• Assembling the Macarons
• Lime & Galangal Macaron Recipe

Lime & Galangal Macarons: The Breakdown

My lime & galangal macarons are made with my classic macaron shells, which I have tinted a deep yellow colour, using a combination of yellow and orange water-based food colouring. All of the lime & galangal flavour comes from the filling: a lime & galangal curd that is lightened with whipped cream. As a nod to the design of the original macarons, I’ve dusted my shells with orange food colouring dust, giving them this pretty, orange sherbet, half-and-half look.

Ingredients

To make the macaron shells, you will need the following ingredients:

• Ground almonds: This gives the macarons their iconic, nutty taste and texture. The almonds need to be very finely ground, so don’t skimp on the sieving/blitzing steps.
• Icing sugar: One of the two types of sugar in the shells, the icing sugar is mixed into a paste with the almonds and half of the egg whites.
• Egg whites: You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so set them aside for a different recipe. It’s vital that you weigh your egg whites for this recipe, because macarons are very particular about ratios and quantities!
• Caster sugar: The second type of sugar. This is heated with the water to form a sugar syrup, which is used to make the Italian meringue.
• Water: This is mixed with the caster sugar to make the sugar syrup.
• Yellow & orange food colouring: it’s very important that you use the right food colouring when making macarons- your food colouring needs to be a water-based, gel food colouring. For these macarons, I used the Colour Mill Aqua Blend Food Colouring, in the shades Yellow and Orange.
• Orange Edible Dusting Colour: This is optional, but I used this edible dust to decorate my shells, as a nod to the orange logo on the original Ladurée macarons.

To make the lime & galangal filling, you will need:

• Egg: You need the whole egg (yolk and white) for the curd.
• Caster sugar: This adds sweetness to the curd.
• Limes: You will need the finely-grated zest, as well as the juice, of the limes, to get a really intense, bright flavour.
• Galangal paste: A slightly rogue ingredient for a citrus curd, but if it’s good enough for Ladurée, it’s good enough for me. Galangal is a root that is used frequently in South Asian cooking- it’s often compared to ginger, but it has a more floral, slightly medicinal flavour. By adding it to the lime curd, you not only introduce some of those subtle, floral notes, you also add a little warmth to the curd, which hits you at the end of each mouthful. In the UK, galangal is most readily available in paste form, so that’s what I’ve used for this recipe.
• Unsalted butter: Butter makes the curd rich and smooth.
• Double cream: We will fold the curd into whipped cream, for a lighter, creamier mouthfeel and a structure that is more suited to holding two macaron shells together.

Making the Yellow Macaron Shells

I have done a lot of posts on how to make macaron shells here on the blog, so I won’t be doing a deep dive into that here. If you want a complete walkthrough of the process, you can find my master macaron post here.

I will, however, talk about how I achieved this gorgeous shade of yellow, because I’ve never actually made yellow macarons before, so this was learning curve for me!

Admittedly, the original, Ladurée macaron shells are a much stronger shade of yellow compared to my shells. Despite the impression my recipes might give, I don’t actually love using loads of food colouring in my bakes, so I decided to aim for a slightly softer shade of yellow for my macarons. I also prefer not to use too much food colouring when making macarons, in particular, because they are so finicky- adding too much of anything outside of the core ingredients can cause major macaron issues.

Anyway, as always with colouring macaron shells, I followed a few key principles:

• Use a water-based, gel food colouring: This is the most important thing- oil is the enemy of the macaron, so you absolutely cannot use an oil-based food colouring to tint macaron shells. It’s water-based all the way, baby. Furthermore, it’s important to use a gel food colouring, not a liquid one, as you’ll get more colour payoff with less colouring, meaning your batter/bake is less likely to be affected. I swear by Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend Food Colouring range for my macarons- for these ones, I used a combination of the shades Yellow and Orange.

• Go darker than you think: I like to add the food colouring to the initial almond + icing sugar + egg white paste, to ensure that it is fully incorporated before the macaronage stage. However, when you do this, it’s important to remember that the super-white meringue will drastically lighten the colour. Aim to get the right tone of your desired colour, in a much deeper shade, so that when the mixture lightens, it lightens down to the perfect colour! Sometimes, you can do this by using a dark food colouring in the first place, like I did with my Earl Grey Macarons. For a shade like yellow though, it’s a little trickier. In the end, I used mostly yellow food colouring, for the right tone, then darkened it up with a little orange colouring, which gave me this deep, almost egg yolk shade, which lightened to a pretty, almost banana-yellow!
• Keep an eye on the shells when they’re baking: Over-baking macarons can lead to the surfaces browning, because the sugar in the shells start to caramelise. You need to be particularly careful of this when baking coloured macaron shells, because any amount of browning will affect the colour of the macarons.

Making the Lime & Galangal Filling

Now we come to the fun bit: the lime & galangal filling! As I mentioned, this is just a lime & galangal curd, which is folded into whipped cream to make a silky-smooth, airy and fresh filling. You’ll need to make the curd ahead of time (at least an hour), so that it has plenty of time to chill and firm up in the fridge, but, on the bright side, it’s super quick and easy to make! You’ll only need half of the batch of curd for this recipe, but you can use the rest for all sorts of things (for example: as a snack on toast!), so it won’t go to waste.

I prefer to make curd in a saucepan, directly over the heat (as opposed to in a bain-marie), because I find it much quicker (it only takes about 5 minutes!) and easier. You just need to make sure you stir the mixture constantly, to prevent it from catching, and that you pass the finished curd through a sieve to remove any bits of egg (which I would do anyway, even if I made the curd in a bain-marie, so it all works out).

Start by putting the beaten egg, sugar, galangal paste (that’s the slightly… shrimpy looking? pink stuff on the left), lime zest and juice into a small saucepan.

Mix everything together well with a fork or whisk, so that the galangal and lime zest is evenly distributed throughout the mixture and the egg is completely incorporated. Then, add the diced butter and put the pan over a medium-low heat.

Stir constantly while the butter melts, then keep the pan over the heat, still stirring constantly, until the curd thickens. It should coat the back of a spoon when it is ready.

Pass the curd through a sieve to remove the zest, any large pieces of galangal and any little pieces of egg. This will leave you with a silky-smooth, lime & galangal curd.

Cover the surface of the curd directly with clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill and firm up, for at least an hour, or up to 4-5 days in advance. The curd will become paler in colour and more opaque as it chills.

Once the curd is chilled and you are ready to assemble your macarons, you can finish the filling. In a large bowl, whip the cream until it reaches just below stiff peaks. I could have taken mine a little further at this stage, but I was being cautious!

Transfer half of your chilled curd to a small bowl.

Add a spoonful of cream to the curd. We’ll start by vigorously mixing in a small amount of cream, which will lighten the curd and make it easier to fold into the rest of the cream.

Mix together until everything is completely incorporated.

Then, fold through the remaining whipped cream, until smooth and evenly combined.

If your filling is a little on the soft side (like mine was…), you can always keep whipping it with the electric whisk. Does this undermine the whole folding process? Probably. Does it make that much of a difference? Absolutely not. Ideally, you want a firm, pipeable consistency, that won’t ooze out of your macarons too much, like this…

And there you have it- a zesty, fresh and light lime & galangal filling, ready for your macaron shells.

Assembling the Macarons

To assemble the macarons, all you need to do is sandwich two shells together with a small amount of the lime & galangal filling.

You can use a teaspoon, blunt knife or piping bag to place the filling onto the underside of one shell, before gently pressing the other half on top.

If you want to decorate your macaron shells like mine, use a small, dry paintbrush to add a small amount of orange food colouring dust to the top of each macaron. I dusted one side of each shell, to give this half-and-half effect. You can either do this once you’ve assembled the macarons, or, if you want to get this stage done in advance, you can decorate the individual shells before filling them.

Because the filling of these macarons contains whipped cream, it’s best to eat them as soon as possible after assembling. They will, however, keep in the fridge for a day or two, if necessary (as long as the cream is within its original use by date!).

Lime & Galangal Macaron Recipe

Print

Lime & Galangal Macarons

My take on the official 'Roland Garros' 2024 macaron flavour by Ladurée- these yellow macarons are filled with a zesty lime & galangal curd filling and decorated with orange edible dust.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine French, Italian

Keyword Galangal, Italian macarons, Ladurée, Lime, macaron, Roland Garros

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chill Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 22 macarons

Equipment

• 1 small(ish), round piping nozzle
• 1 piping bag

Ingredients

For the whipped lime & galangal curd filling:

• 1 egg, beaten.
• 75 g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp galangal paste (see Note 1).
• 2 limes, zest and juice.
• 55 g unsalted butter, diced.
• 150 ml double cream

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites, split into two equal portions (2x36g).
• 95 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water
• Yellow & orange water-based gel food colouring (see Note 2).

To decorate:

• Orange edible colour dust (optional).

Instructions

Make the lime & galangal curd:

• In a small saucepan, mix together the beaten egg, caster sugar, galangal paste, lime zest and juice until completely combined.
• Add the diced butter, then place the pan over medium-low heat and stir constantly while the butter melts.
• Once the butter has melted, keep the pan over the heat and continue stirring until the curd has thickened. It should coat the back of a wooden spoon when ready.
• Pass the curd through a heatproof sieve to remove the zest/galangal, as well as any pieces of egg. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill and firm up for at least an hour before finishing the filling.

Make the yellow macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a small(ish), round nozzle (mine was 6mm in diameter) and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/icing sugar mixture, along with the food colouring (I used mainly yellow, with a few drops of orange to darken it). Mix well to form a paste with an even, deep, egg yolk shade, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean (see Note 3), metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Leave aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, while monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• Once the sugar syrup reaches 118°C, the egg whites should have reached soft peaks. With the mixer still running on high speed, carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the yellow almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, pipe macarons about 2.5cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. When the macarons are ready and the oven is hot, bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray before decorating/filling.

Finish the lime & galangal filling:

• In a large bowl, whip the cream to just below stiff peaks.
• Transfer half of the chilled lime & galangal curd to a bowl (the other half can be kept in the fridge for 4-5 days and used for other bakes/zesty snacking).
• Add a spoonful of whipped cream to the curd and mix through well to lighten the mixture.
• Add the rest of the cream and fold in gently, until combined.

Assemble & decorate the macarons:

• Sandwich two macaron shells with a small amount of the lime & galangal filling. You can use a piping bag for a neat finish, or just use a teaspoon/blunt knife to spread the filling onto the underside of the shells.
• If you want to decorate the macarons, use a small, dry, food-safe paintbrush to add a little of the orange food colouring dust onto each macaron (this can also be done before filling the macarons, if preferred).
• For best results, serve immediately after assembling. If necessary, the macarons can be stored in the fridge for a day or two, as long as the cream does not surpass its original use by date.

Notes

1. Galangal has quite a strong flavour, so you don’t need a lot of it, though it will become more subtle once the curd is mixed with the cream. This amount (1 1/2 tsp) gives a subtle, floral taste and slight warmth. If you would like a more intense galangal flavour, you can increase the amount accordingly.
2. You must use a water-based, gel food colouring when making macarons. I like Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend range. For these macarons, I used a combination of the shades Yellow and Orange.
3. To clean the bowl and the whisk for meringue, rub a small amount of white wine vinegar over both using a piece of kitchen roll. This will remove any traces of fat/residue that might prevent your meringue from whipping up properly.