lavender honey ice cream

{via kitchen fervor}

It's shocking that I haven't posted this recipe already. It's also shocking that as I was making this the other day, I forgot to take pictures. I really need to get better about remembering to do that. Luckily I could this lovely picture, which I think will do the trick, even it's not violet colored like my ice cream is.

This is my all time favorite ice cream. EVER. It's so amazing that it may or may not have inspired the name of this blog. Making ice cream takes time. If you are an impatient person like myself you may have trouble with it, but I assure you it's worth it. Homemade ice cream is so creamy and dense you'll never be able to go back to store bought. To make this recipe you will need an electric ice cream maker. We have this one and I really like it, totally affordable too.

I found a recipe for this online, but Jacob and I both like Alton Brown's ice cream recipes so we kind of melded the two. Be warned, this is not healthy at all, but if you're going to eat ice cream and you want it to be delicious, you might as well go all out.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups half-and-half

8 large egg yolks

2/3 cup mild honey {add more based on your own taste}

2 tablespoons dried edible lavender flowers

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender just to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove pan from heat. Let steep, covered, 30 minutes.

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

Whisk together eggs and salt in a large bowl, then add 1 cup hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Add vanilla. Pour into remaining hot cream mixture in saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on thermometer, about 5 minutes (do not let boil).

Pour custard through sieve into cleaned bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Yum!