Saturday, March 24, 2012

Honey Ice Cream

Remember in the Bible where God promised His chosen people a "land flowing with milk and honey"? I often wonder if they made honey ice cream when they arrived in the promised land. It may sound like I'm trying to make a funny here but when I make honey ice cream that's the first thing that comes to my mind because it's made mostly from milk and honey and it is heavenly.
Here is what you will need to make a little over a quart of your own honey ice cream.

  • 1/2 cup honey, a light-colored honey works best, clover honey is a good choice
  • the yolks of 6 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup of milk, I used 2%
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup of heavy cream
Start the milk to simmer over medium heat in a heavy sauce pan.
Mix together the half cup of honey with the 6 egg yolks until well blended. SLOWLY pour the milk into the honey egg mixture while the mixer is running a medium speed. If you add the hot milk in too fast you cook the eggs and end up with honey-flavored scrambled eggs floating in hot milk...not good. If this is something you have never tried before don't be scared just go slow, you cannot go too slow adding the hot milk, only too fast.
Once you have added all the hot milk to the egg mixture it will not take long for it to blend into a beautiful pale yellow mixture.
Now return this mixture back to the sauce pan you used to heat your milk. Place on a burner set at LOW heat and stir constantly until it thickens slightly. We don't want to simmer this mixture. Remember we can end up with those honey-flavored scrambled eggs if we cook this mixture too hot or too long.
After it thickens slightly remove it from the heat and pour it through a strainer into a container or bowl.
Let it cool slightly, the add 1 cup of heavy cream and one teaspoon of vanilla, stir until blended.
Before you run this mixture in your ice cream maker, make sure it is chilled completely by placing it in your fridge over night.
All ice cream makers are different so I will leave the actual ice cream making to you. I have an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer that I just love and highly recommend.
The freshly churned ice cream will be soft and wonderful. But if you like the texture of a more frozen, firm product, leave it in the freezer for at least 6 hours after removing from your ice cream maker.
I hope you'll make some of this delisuous ice cream for yourself sometime. If you keep bees like I do this is a unique opportunity to enjoy your honey in a whole new way. Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. That is right up my alley. I got an ice cream maker for Christmas and I will have to give this a try! Thanks for swinging by my porch.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by my little blog :)
    You will love this ice cream, using the honey from your bees.
    Look in my recipes and you'll see a raspberry sorbet recipe in there that's tasty, too.
    Carolyn

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