Ok so this isn't really about vegetables . . although if I needed a technicality the lavender I used was from my garden. In any event I just had to share. I have been obsessed with trying Lavender Honey Ice Cream ever since I saw the movie It's Complicated. It was a big reason I bought the ice cream maker in the first place. But late the Friday night before Hurricane Irene was to hit was the first time I'd found the time to make it. I had bought organic cream and organic whole milk the week before and at the risk of it going bad if I lost power I wanted to use it up. Oh and the idea that I could control the quality of the ingredients was one of the many justifications I had for buying the machine. Somehow if I use organic milk and cream isn't that better for you?? Anyway I used Martha Stewart's recipe - you can find it here.
I'm not going to mince words . . it was terrible, it tasted like potpourri. I barely ate one tiny serving of it and when the power went out I didn't care that it was going to melt in the freezer. I might try to make it one more time because I'm wondering if perhaps mine had too much of the lavender. I would cut back a little and I think I may have brought the milk to too much of a boil so it may have drawn out too much lavender essence. I don't know and I won't be trying it anytime soon but I thought I'd share. Anyone ever had Honey Lavender Ice Cream and enjoy it??
The rest of my forays into making homemade ice cream have gone much better or not as dreadful. Here is a quick run down:
Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream - this is another ice cream I've heard about but couldn't find around here so was eager to make myself. I used a recipe similar to this one here but I added ancho chili powder in addition to the cayenne. This was a terrific first homemade ice cream and I will be making it again.
Coconut Sorbet - my mother was a big fan of this. I enjoyed it but I have to admit not as much as the coconut ice cream I made later (see below). This was very refreshing and not real sweet. But for some reason it seemed to coat my palate a little too much. In small servings though, which I guess is how sorbet should be served, it is good. Here is the recipe I used.
Mango Frozen Yogurt - this was another not terribly successful attempt. I'm pretty sure I know why though - the mangoes were not as ripe as they should have been and I didn't measure the lime juice so I think I used too much. In the end it was too sour but I will certainly try again with really, ripe mangoes. The recipe I used was yogurt, sugar, mangoes and lime juice.
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - This was pretty close to a home run! My Mom grew up in Manchester, CT and until I was in high school we spent lots of holidays and weekends visiting. One of the treats was chocolate chip ice cream at Shady Glenn. In the last 15 years I have been known to bring a cooler with me if I was driving anywhere near Manchester to bring home a gallon. It's creamy lovely vanilla ice cream with shavings of chocolate in it - I've never had it like that anywhere else. So with my ice cream maker in hand I thought let me see if I can get close . . and close I did! Click here to see the recipe I used. I used Hershey's Milk Chocolate and put the bar in the freezer overnight. I then dropped it into a food processor just as the ice cream was thickening so I could get the grated chocolate into the mixture as cold as possible. Even doing that my ice cream had a chocolate tint instead of the crisp white of Shady Glenn's but the taste was pretty damn close. I will certainly be experimenting with this one in the future. My mother gave this one rave reviews as well and rationed her share of it over many, many nights.
Coconut Ice Cream - This one was tied with the Mexican Chocolate as my most successful. The only issue was I didn't make enough. It was creamy and tasted so much like coconut plus with the bits of coconut in it . .oh god so yummy! Here is the recipe I used and will be using again very soon.
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