Lavender Lemon Ice Cream

I don't prepare many desserts, but I do love to make ice cream. Homemade ice cream can be much better than the store bought stuff. You can control the taste and texture of the final product to a huge degree. For a dinner party I attended recently, I made lavender lemon ice cream.

The following is my basic recipe for ice cream:

3/4 cup Whole Milk
3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
4 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
Flavoring components
1/2 cup Vodka

When I first started making ice cream, and after many failures, I came up with this as a basic recipe which I will modify depending on what specifically I am making. If I am using something that is already very sweet to flavor the ice cream, I may use less sugar. If you want a less dense ice cream, you can use more milk and less cream, or vice versa. My preference is generally for denser ice creams. I also experimented recently with using whole egg instead of just the yolks and got some interesting textural results.

The vodka is to prevent the ice cream from freezing solid. Commercial ice creams contain many preservatives for this purpose, which you can buy online. However, its easier just to use alcohol. I generally use vodka because it is flavorless, but you can certainly use other liquors if you want to add flavor.

To make lavender lemon ice cream, first put the milk and cream in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add a few tablespoons of dried lavender. Add the juice and zest from two lemons. Also place the lemons themselves into the mixture. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

When the mixture has heated to just lower than boiling, remove from heat and cover. Allow the mixture to steep for half an hour.

Meanwhile, place the egg yolks and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixture (or use a hand mixture if that is what you have).

Mix until blended:

Pour the milk and cream mixture through a fine sieve into another sauce pan in order to remove the lavender flowers and lemon pieces and return to medium heat.

Just before boiling, remove from heat. Turn the stand mixture on low speed and slowly pour the mixture into the eggs and sugar. This will cook the egg yolks without scrambling them.

Next, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Place a small power inside the larger bowl and pour the ice cream base into the smaller bowl. When I was making this ice cream, I was out of ice so I used cold packs.

When the mixture has cooled, place in the fridge to chill for several hours. If possible, chill overnight. The colder mixture is before adding it to the ice cream maker, the better the results.

When the mixture has chilled, add the (chilled) vodka and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacture's instruction. 

I thought this batch of ice cream turned out very well, and everyone at the dinner party seemed to enjoy it. It had a very strong lavender scent and flavor and was nicely balanced by the lemon.

There are limitless varieties of ice cream which can be made. Some of the more exotic flavors I have made include cucumber, corn, and juniper berry.