Friday, April 1, 2011

Honey Lavender Coconut Milk Ice Cream

My parents had a great surprise for me when I was visiting home last weekend and it came in the form of an ice cream maker. I have wanted once since late last summer but needed a new laptop at Christmas time so the ice cream maker wasn’t a priority. Best. Surprise. Ever. Well, at least as of late.

There’s also a really great natural foods store up in Maine near my parents’ that has bulk bins of herbs and spices. I saw lavender and immediately filled up a container with the stuff. Though I’ve had a couple of ideas tossing around about what to do with the lavender, it finally occurred to me that it might make an interesting ice cream ingredient. I did a bit of research and found out that it has been done. I used a couple of recipes as a guide for measurement purposes (I didn’t want to have the ice cream taste overwhelmingly like a flower) but ended up coming up with a basic recipe on my own. It. was. divine.

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Recipe:

  • 2 cans lite coconut milk
  • 4-5 T organic wildflower honey
  • 1 t dried lavender, ground
  • contents of 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  • pinch of salt

Put all ingredients in food processor/blender until mixed. Pour into frozen ice cream maker bowl and make ice cream according to ice cream manufacturer’s directions.

I used a Cuisinart ice cream maker and it took about 20 minutes. The ice cream was creamy but a bit soft so I put it in a plastic container in the freezer to firm up.

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5 comments:

  1. there are so many things that I adore about this! Where to begin? (a) Coconut milk! Love love love that you used it! (b) LAVENDER...I've had some sitting around here FOREVER and no clue what to do with it. Ice cream it is! (c) ICE CREAM. Hello, lover.

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  2. I am so, so in love. Growing up, I always hated the smell of lavender, but then I discovered that I adore it in sweets (I found out by trying a lavender chocolate, surprises surprise ;) ) And this is dairy-free to boot! Squee!

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  3. ooh, i love coconut milk ice cream, and i've got some lavendar... hmmm ;)

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