Friday, June 18, 2010

My Lavender Hill & Honey Lavender Ice Cream - June 2010



I planted lavender all over the hill that leads from our breakfast area down to our guest rooms. The lavender is now in that magical moment of the year when it is a mass of spectacular color and the smell of lavender is so intense it's almost cloying.
This is why I love seasonality and NOT having everything around and available to you all year. Because the lead up to the full blooming of the lavender (which is still happening by the way) is really downright exciting! And it has to be enjoyed fully because it comes and goes so fast! I love being able to put vases of fresh lavender in our guest rooms, I love drying the lavender & making sachets and, of course, I love cooking with it!

Guests on my lavender hill:


So, today it's lavender ice cream!...



Honey Lavender Ice Cream


(adapted from a Gourmet magazine recipe)


3 cups (237 ml) heavy cream

2/3 cup (158 ml) honey

2 tablespoons dried lavender flowers

2 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt


Bring cream, honey, and lavender just to a boil in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Stir frequently with a whisk, then remove pan from heat and allow to steep, covered, until lukewarm, or about a half hour.





Pour cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard lavender. Return mixture to a clean, double boiler saucepan and heat over moderate heat until hot.

Whisk eggs and salt together, then slowly add about half the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly.

Pour the cream and egg mixture into the remaining hot cream mixture and cook in the double boiler over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat back of a wooden spoon. Do not let boil.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Cover and chill until cold (several hours).

Place the bowl in a freezer. Every 15 minutes remove the bowl and mix thoroughly with a wire whisk or wooden spoon. Repeat this process until the ice cream is frozen solid. Mixing the ice cream every 15 minutes will prevent the formation of ice crystals.



3 comments:

  1. Needed to put you one very small observation in order to thank you once again for these great views you've shown on this site. It's simply unbelievably generous of people like you to deliver openly all numerous people would've distributed as an e book to help with making some bucks on their own, most importantly since you might have done it in the event you desired. These creative ideas additionally acted to become a fantastic way to fully grasp the rest have similar interest the same as my personal own to know lots more with reference to this matter. I believe there are thousands of more pleasant sessions up front for individuals who start reading your site.
    wall art australia wholesale

    ReplyDelete
  2. We stumbled over here by a different page and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.
    giftware online shop

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I'm looking to create my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. kudos
    Cheap Deals in Melbourne

    ReplyDelete