TWD - Rosemary Honey Ice Cream

Better late than never, huh? Several things kept me from posting on Tuesday, but the biggest one was that I was not able to actually make the ice cream until Wednesday.

So, starting at the beginning. . . . This week's TWD recipe was picked by LinnyLu and it was Vanilla Ice Cream. Meh. I've made vanilla ice cream more times than I can count in my lifetime, so I decided to jazz it up a little. Three months ago, we were out for dinner . . . a very expensive dinner that wasn't very good. But the dessert was fabulous - it was rosemary gelato. The rosemary was so intense that I could still taste it on my breath after I brushed my teeth before bed.

But I liked the flavor, so I decided to try and make rosemary ice cream. The only recipe I could find was Charlie Trotter's recipe. I didn't use it because that's not really the point of belong to Tuesday with Dorie and using someone else's recipe. But I used the infusion method he recommended. After heating the milk, I let about 1/4 cup of rosemary sprigs sit in the hot milk for half an hour. Then I continued with the rest of Dorie's recipe.

I was a little concerned because after I slowly combined the milk mixture with the egg mixture and started to heat it up again, it got lumpy. Not bad lumpy, but lumpy. Out of the hundreds of times I have made ice cream, this is the only time I have come close to curdling the custard. I'm still not sure it actually curdled, though. It was kind of lumpy, but not weird looking otherwise and tasted just fine.

So, I let it sit overnight to cool and it was still a little lumpy, but tasted just fine. I froze it and it wasn't lumpy at all. So I don't really know what happened, but it all turned out just fine in the end. I really liked the rosemary and honey together. It was refreshing and comforting all at the same time. I think I might try other herbs. I've had lemongrass, bay leaf, lavender, thyme, and basil ice cream (not all together) and they were all good. I don't know if I would pair them with honey or just plain sugar and vanilla.

One thing I'm dying to try is cayenne pepper chocolate ice cream. When I lived in Minneapolis in the early 90s, there was an independent ice cream store across the street from our apartment building. It was some of the best ice cream I've ever had. My favorite flavor was called Coyote Chocolate and it was cayenne and dark chocolate ice cream. It was a slow heat spicy but sweet as well. Someday, I hope to perfect that recipe.

I have a picture of the rosemary honey ice cream, but it is on my camera, which is at my house, where I am not. I am sitting in a bar and currently waiting for my fourth or fifth Captain and Coke to be served. I'm a little drunk.