Lavender Ice Cream

Remember a while back when the good folks at Marx Foods sent me some samples? I had some lavender left over after making Marc's celery lavender cocktail, and had to find a way to use it up. I opened the freezer, and saw my ice cream maker's freezer bowl thingy. Perfect!

Perusing the Interwebs, I came across Elissa's recipe for lavender ice cream at 17 and Baking. (If you haven't checked out Elissa's blog yet, what are you waiting for?) Easy peasy, steep the lavender in milk, mix with egg yolks and sugar, cook the custard, cool, churn, freeze.

Plus, making this ice cream would allow me to join in Ben's Homemade #5 for June!

















My first guinea pig, er, taster, was Youngest. She said "Huh, now I know what a flower tastes like." Hubby was 2nd, he didn't like the 1st bite, but after the 2nd, said it was "pretty good" and "very flowery". MIL said "Damn, girl, that's delicious".

I agree with all of them - the first bite's a little strange, if you're not used to eating flowers. (My only previous flower-eating experience is nasturtiums, which are slightly peppery. Ooh, nasturtium ice cream! Add that to the "to-make" list.) The second spoonful's better, your brain realizes it's just ice cream with a different flavor. By the 3rd spoon, you're hooked.

Don't forget about Ben's Homemade #5, he'll be posting a roundup in July! I can't wait to see all the delicious ice cream flavors everyone comes up with.

Ginger Ice Cream

I finally made Ginger Ice Cream, recipe courtesy of David Lebovitz via Slashfood, due to the fact that I couldn't handle another day of MIL bugging me to make it.

It was easy to make. It's delicious. No pictures, because it looks like every other ice cream I've made (and I'm lazy).

Make this, you won't be sorry.

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

David Lebovitz is my new favorite person. This coffee ice cream from The Perfect Scoop was super-simple and absolutely delicious.















Brew coffee with 1/2 cup of grounds and 1 1/2 cups of water. This should yield about a cup. Whisk the coffee together with a can (~400g) of sweetened condensed milk, and 1/3 cup of whole milk. I used skim milk mixed with half & half, because that's what I had. Chill thoroughly in the freezer, then chuck it in your ice cream maker. While it's churning, add a large pinch of coffee grounds. When done, scoop into containers and freeze. It won't freeze as hard as regular ice cream, and it melts really fast. I think it's because of the sweetened condensed milk, but I'm a chemist, not a food scientist, so what do I know?

Make this. You'll love it. Unless you don't like coffee, in which case, I can't help you.

Coconut Ice Cream

This is by far the easiest ice cream recipe ever. No eggs. No heavy cream. Just open a couple cans. And it's delicious!















I wanted to make ice cream, but didn't want to go to the store for whole milk and heavy cream. I also didn't want to deal with cooking the eggy custardy thing and waiting for it to chill forever.

So I found this recipe for Coconut Ice Cream from Clotilde and Chocolate & Zucchini, and gave it a shot. I used about 1/3 cup of unsweetened dried grated coconut, and 2/3 cup of sweetened dried coconut shreds, because that's what I had. I also was out of vanilla, and had no rum, so I used a capful or so of rum extract. And I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup since some of my coconut was sweetened.

After fighting with my ice cream maker to get the paddle-mixer to stay put, I was rewarded with a tasty coconut ice cream. It's a little grainy, not perfectly creamy like "real" ice cream, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Definitely a keeper.

Lemon Ice Cream

What do you do when you have a lemon tree overloaded with lemons, and you also happen to have half a pint of heavy cream in your fridge?

You make lemon ice cream!

This was my first attempt at a custard-based ice cream, using this recipe from the Barefoot Kitchen Witch, and it was everything I hoped it would be. I am newly enamored with both my lemon tree and my ice cream maker.