Tuesday, April 26, 2011

It's Complicated (Honey Lavender Ice Cream)

It's Complicated is one of my mom and my favorite movies.  It gets funnier every time you watch.  Seriously- try it out.  The first time I watched it, however, the only thing I could think about was: honey lavender ice cream... I MUST try this!  And so begins my relationship with home made ice cream.  I wasn't even sure if a recipe existed, but of course there was a recipe from Martha Stewart herself.

I have made this recipe several times, and it will be in my repertoire for the rest of my life.  This isn't for the faint-hearted, mind you.  If you don't have a real sweet tooth, it may be too much for you.  Just kidding... but not really, very rich!

You will need an ice cream maker for this.  And if you're like me, the first time you want to make it, you will forget that it needs to go in the freezer about 10 hours before you want to make it.  Read the instructions on your ice cream maker before tackling this... it's easy; it just takes a little planning!  Also, adjust your recipe to the amount that your ice cream maker holds (mine holds one quart).

First you will need 2 cups of whole milk, 1/4 cup dried lavender, and 1/3 cup honey.  Bring the milk, honey, and lavender to a boil (but not rolling), then take it off the heat and cover it.  It has to steep for 5 minutes.  You can find lavender at the Spice House, if you're a Chicagoan, (you can order online too!) or Whole Foods.  Also, if you can, try out some local honey.  It is SO much better than a honey bear, I promise!  You can find it at farmers' markets and local shops!


Once it has steeped for 5 minutes, strain the lavender from the milk.  In a mixing bowl combine 5 egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar.  Beat the sugar and eggs on medium high speed for about 5 minutes.  You want it to turn thick and a canary yellow.


Then put the strained milk mixture back onto the stove and heat it slowly while stirring on lower heat.  You really don't want it to burn!  Once it's warm, add half the milk to the eggs and sugar, and whisk.  Then add all of the egg mixture back to the pot on the stove.  That was confusing.  OK: heat pot of milk, add half of milk in pot to the bowl of eggs and sugar, then add all of it back to the pot with the other half of the milk.  Make sense?



This photo keeps flipping, I'm sorry I can't make it stay upright, but you get the idea!  When the mixture is on the stove, it needs to heat on low until it will coat the back of a spoon.  Stir it the whole time- you don't want scrambled eggs!


Add 1 cup of cream once it's thick and you have taken it off the heat.  Then strain it once again.  This time strain it into a bowl in a water bath.  This is a bowl inside of a larger bowl filled with ice and water.


Allow it to cool for about 30 minutes before putting it into your ice cream maker to freeze.  I keep my ice cream in the machine for 30-40 minutes.


Remember that it won't be frozen until you put it into the freezer--  after the ice cream maker does its work-- to really hard freeze.  Make sure you put it into a storage container when you transfer it to the freezer.  Let it freeze for a couple of hours and then you'll have the richest, sweetest, most incredible ice cream you've ever tasted!  After you make some, call me and I'll come eat your ice cream and watch It's Complicated with you!


Honey Lavender Ice Cream
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup dried lavender
1/3 cup honey
5 egg yolks
1/4 cup honey
1 cup heavy cream

21 comments:

  1. That does seem Super complicated but your description of the process made it easy to understand. Thanks! I definitely think we ladies need to do all these things next chance we get :)

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  2. Once you do it one time it's really simple. It's just kind of a weird, wordy recipe. We definitely should!

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  3. I have gotten an ice cream maker attachement for Christmas and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I love the movie "it's Complicated" and ever since I watched it, I wanted to make lavender honey ice cream. I looked at tons of recipes and I really liked the outlined steps with pictures in this one. It helped a lot. I just had some of this ice cream and it's absolutely heavenly delicious. One of the best ice creams I have ever had - it's so light, with hint of lavender on your palate - just dreamy! This ice cream is definitely going to be one of my go to desserts. I wouldn't really say that the recipe is wordy, it turned out to be very easy to make, thanks to your very clearly outlines steps. Thank you again, Kelly, my husband and I are enjoying the ice cream as I type this post.

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  4. Thank you so much! I really appreciate that and I am so thrilled that you enjoyed it! I haven't made it in awhile, but your comment has reminded me of my love of this wonderful treat.

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  5. If I wanted to make a larger quantity, does it have to freeze in an ice cream maker? Can I just put it in a container in the freezer?

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  6. I am going to refer to David Lebovitz for this one. Hope this helps! http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/making-ice-crea-1/

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  7. Easy to make. Think next time I will decrease the lavender. It was a little overpowering for me. I'd like a hint of lavender not tasting like I has a sachet in my mouth.

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  8. Kelly, I loved your recipe! The lavender was a little too strong for me too, so the second time I made it I halved the lavender and halved the steeping time. The texture is fabulous and the taste is so complex that you can taste both the lavender and the honey. Thanks so much for this 5 star treat!

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  9. Thanks so much for both of your inputs! I guess I just like mine a little heavy on the lavender! :)

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  10. Your instructions call for 1/3 cup honey and 1/4 cup sugar, but your list of ingredients say 1/3 c honey plus 1/4 c honey. Which is it?

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  11. It's 1/3 honey and 1/4 sugar! Sorry about that!

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  12. I made this recipee a few months ago, it was a huge hit. My nieces even requested me to make this for their birthday!

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  14. love the recipe, I will do it soon :) but if you don't have an ice cream maker? what can you do it with?

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  15. What kind of dried lavender? Or is that a stupid question?

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  16. Hi,

    You have: 1/3 cup honey, and 1/4 cup honey. Is one of these supposed to be the sugar? Thanks.

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  17. This is the most incredible ice cream ever,
    Thank You So Much for sharing it!!!!

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  18. This is the most incredible ice cream ever,
    Thank You So Much for sharing it!!!!

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  19. This was amazing ice cream. However, I think the instructions could be much less wordy and more to the point though. I stumbled a bit the first time I made it. For the novice making it for the first time in the kitchen trying to glance back at their cell phone trying to make sense through the confusing wording.
    I'd suggest editing this entire recipe to make it straight forward

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  20. Oh my gosh, I absolutely adore It's Complicated! Being a fellow Chicagoan, I love anything and everything cheese, so I actually looked up the croque-monsieur recipe first, then looked up the lavender honey ice cream. It was so much fun reading your recipe, especially since I'm watching the movie at the moment, haha! Thank you so very much for prvoiding the recipe, and now we just need to write letters to Meryl Streep Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin and tell them they need to make a sequel!!

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