Lavender Honey Ice Cream
My beloved Zahraa,
It was 7:00 am when your baba and I were sitting outside, each with a cup of espresso in our hands and overlooking our garden full of lavender blooms. That day, I thought it would be the ideal day to harvest the lavender. There were five bushes of provincial lavender we had planted several years back. Each year, there was a significant growth in these bushes as it grew wide with the lavender stems growing tall. I could not wait any longer and informed you of my plans to harvest them. It would indeed be a full day of working with lavender which is something we cherish in our household, as it is our choice of bar soap fragrance and we are never short of its essential oil for remedies. Furthermore, it is an adornment throughout our little home. Its fragrance even reminds me of your jiddo (grandfather), as he uses it in the same way we do and even more. My fascination doesn’t end there as you have witnessed my admiration of this exquisite herb and how I always dream of visiting the lavender fields in Provence. In fact, do you remember when I took you to visit the nearby lavender fields? You even referred to our little collection of lavender bushes as a small lavender field.
So, I gathered the supplies needed to begin our quest: a pruner, a basket, some rubber bands and twine. I waited for you to wake up and assist me with the harvest. We collected all the lavender and placed them on the table to make plentiful arrangements. When it was all set and done, we harvested a total of nine bundles! We stored the bundles of lavender to dry. Meanwhile, we made a list of things we wanted to use the dried lavender with. Among the items on the list was to make satchels to place in our linen drawers and closets as a freshener and the other was to make honey lavender ice cream. You expressed how silly that sounded: “Honey lavender ice cream?!”, but I promised that you would absolutely love it and you surely did!
with love,
Mama
Honey Lavender Ice cream
Recipe adapted from BI-RITE CREAMERY
For the Ice cream base
1 ¾ cups heavy cream
¾ cup whole milk
½ cup raw honey
¼ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons organic dried lavender
5 large egg yolks
In a heavy saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, honey, and salt. Put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture begins to come to a brief simmer, remove from the heat and whisk in the lavender. Cover the pan and let steep for about 30 minutes (this step is important to ensure the lavender flavor has been transferred to the cream and honey mixture). Once you have allowed time to steep in the lavender, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing the lavender to extract the flavor into the cream mixture. Rinse the pan (and completely dry) and return the infused cream to the pan.
In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks to break them up and set aside ( if the yolks are left on the counter for some time, the
yolks can form a thick skin and as a result, you will see little pieces of yolks that will be hard to dissolve once added to the cream mixture, to avoid this, simply cover the yolks with plastic wrap while waiting to complete the other steps).
Put the pan of infused cream over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium. Carefully scoop out ½ cup (or a ladle full) of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks while constantly whisking. Add another ½ cup mixture of cream to the yolks while whisking (this is called tempering the egg yolks, you need to whisk the egg yolks while simultaneously adding the hot cream mixture to avoid scrambling the egg yolks). Using a heat proof rubber spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan as you slowly pour the egg and cream mixture from the bowl into the pan.
Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened (coats the back of a spatula and holds a clear path when you run your finger across the spatula), about 2 minutes. Strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean heat proof bowl. Prepare another bowl of the same size ( the ice cream base is in) with ice and water. Place the strained mixture bowl over the ice water bowl. Stir the base until it is completely cooled. Remove the bowl from the ice water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
To Freeze the Ice Cream
Freeze the base in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put a container you will use to store the churned ice cream into the freezer. Enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, transfer to the chilled container and freeze for at least 4 hours.
How to harvest and dry lavender
Snip off the stems just before the flowers open. When you have collected enough lavender stems to make a bundle, tie the stems together and hang the lavender upside down to dry (chose a dark and warm place).
To make satchels of lavender
Dry the lavender buds. Once you have enough to fill a satchel (here I used a herb linen satchel purchased from my local grocery store), fill the satchel, tie to secure the opening and place in your closet or drawers to keep a fresh scent (also repels moths).
