- 2 cups milk
- 2 tbl loose tea,
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 tbl honey
the good news is i am no longer using my daughter’s dora blanket:-) i think i am actually starting to feel better (i sucked it up and took motrin when i finally rolled out of bed at 5 last night). the bad news…i am having some dental problems and food has become evil. who would of thought i would of ever said that? i can’t even think about cooking right now. my poor kids have been eating mac and cheese out of a box and soup out of a can. e has been subject to ordering in. the worst part, this so called blizzard has closed everything down and even though i saw the dentist yesterday morning, i wont be going back ’til friday.
the one thing though that has saved me is ice cream, yes, ice cream.
in order to pacify j on sunday night, who was waiting for dinner and busting my chops about baking cookies, i tempted him with ice cream, you know, not remembering it takes forever to freeze. good idea with a 4 year old. bad for him, great for me, because it was ready after he went to bed 
i haven’t made ice cream that much, this is maybe my 5th time. this time j wanted to make flower ice cream. yeah, i said the same thing. flower ice cream? then i remembered i had bought some whole chamomile flowers for tea at the store a couple weeks back. it was a very exciting process for j. he loved it. which really means i am going to be making more ice cream soon.
the chamomile was a great idea. although there is a lot of sugar and honey in the ice cream, it was out of this world. next time i am going to try green tea or chai…oohhh or maybe even coffee (that of course, is for me, not the kids). it was like a custard, almost like a creme brulee. did i mention how good it was?:-)
below is a basic ice cream recipe. i used it before for making vanilla. i would love to find one that is maybe less sweet, and although it was creamy, i took the short cut and didn’t steep the leaves as long as i should of. you can still taste the chamomile and it’s very light and fragrant.
chamomile ice cream
a note on the tea: you can use any kind of tea, a chai mix would be great. i use loose tea because it seeps quicker and the taste is stronger. if you are using tea bags, use about 5 or 6.
- in a pot, add milk and loose tea. bring it to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.
- in the meantime, in a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks, sugar, honey and a 1/2 cup cream until sugar is dissolved.
- take the milk off of the burner and strain into a measuring cup or bowl, rinse out your pot and pour the milk infused with tea back in. add the rest of your heavy cream. put back on burner and bring up to a simmer.
- prepare an ice bath.
- slowly, very slowly, add and whisk in your egg mixture to the milk and cream. continue to whisk until it gets creamy and custard like.
- take off the burner and immediately put in an ice bath, continue to whisk till cooled down, add to your ice cream maker and turn on.
- my ice cream maker says to run for 25-30 minutes.
- i then put it in a airtight container, usually a soup container, and stick it in the freezer. it can take anywhere from 3 to 8 hours to freeze completely.
this is a great recipe for ice cream, it is very sweet, however. if you do not like sweet ice cream go with maybe 2/3 cup sugar and 2 tbl honey.
open up the container, scoop some out in a bowl, close your eyes and enjoy…heaven.
