Last night I did a little research on how to make a favorite Rhode Island drink: Del’s Lemonade. When I read somebody describe it as an Italian ice, a light went off in my head. In order to make that characteristic slushy consistency they don’t add blended or shaved ice; they run the mixture through an ice cream maker as if they were making a normal Italian ice and take it out of the machine early!
So, I looked up how to make a make-at-home Del’s and thought about how I’d turn that into a recipe using sugar, lemons, and water. This is what I came up with:
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 cups water
- zest and juice from 2 lemons
Directions
- Add 1 cup of water, zest, and sugar to a small non-reactive pot. Heat until all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add remaining water and lemon juice. Chill mixture in an ice bath or in fridge for a few hours. It has to be really cold for the next step.
- Run mixture through ice cream maker for about 10 minutes or until the right consistency. You’ll definitely have to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get too thick on you.
Laura, a former Del’s employee, says that when she received her delivery of frozen lemonade in the morning there would not be any liquid in it at all, and it would slowly get more melted as the day went on. She therefore suggested that it should spend even longer in the ice cream maker. I just wanted something that I could drink from a cup without having to spoon it out. Also, a traditional paper cup would probably work better, since you can squeeze and shake to loosen up the frozen lemonade.
