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.

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.