Week Thirty-One: Floral

I loved this week. I had so many ideas for it, hampered only by my lack of access to flowers. I’m not traditionally a gardener, in fact I have a bit of a reputation as a black thumb - plants under my care don’t often thrive. I bought a house a few years ago and it does have a garden, but there’s nothing much in it except for grass and I pay a gardener to mow that. However, and inspired by my ice cream journey, I’ve got plans to change this. I’ve actually bought and planted a rose, but it’s not like plants produce flowers instantly but hey, it isn’t dead yet! But that was rose ice cream out for this year, my friend did promise me her ones but wanted to keep them on the plant for a party which isn’t until next week. So then I thought, lavender. I did buy some lavender plants, but they’re a particular variety (because I wanted a heritage variety) and I was going to collect them when I ended up slicing my foot open on broken glass. Instead of collecting lavender plants, they’re being posted to me and I’m having to spend most of my time with my foot elevated so it doesn’t keep bleeding - such is life. My friend has some lavender and I don’t know what variety it is but she was happy to let me have some of them. 

And so, lavender ice cream. I used a custard base on this for two reasons: one, being flowers from the garden I wanted to heat it and two, floral tastes are more decadent to me and the complement of the custard taste suits them. A bit like last week, this recipe is part of my new method and so it’s simplified, but unlike being all based on the weight of one of the ingredients percentages are back. But whole number ones!

Lavender ice cream

Ingredients

I made 1000g of mixture, the percentages can be used to make any amount.

600g single (19% butterfat) cream (60%)
50g whipping (39% butterfat) cream (5%)
200g caster sugar (20%)
15% egg yolks - equates to 1 large egg yolk per 100g of mixture, so I used 10 large egg yolks

Lavender flowers - I used 1 flower per 200g of mixture but I think it could have used more, I think I’d try 2 flowers per 250g of mixture

Method

1. Using the back of a spoon, press the lavender into the sugar to encourage flavour release and leave it whilst preparing other ingredients.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1OjCdy4PTqYmnnYPB9CNubyHCfw49B8wb

2. In a saucepan, combine the creams and egg yolks, then add the sugar and constantly whisk whilst heating; when a line can be drawn in the mixture on the back of a spoon, it is ready.

3. Chill for several hours and preferably overnight; for best food safety, use an ice bath to chill to 20C before refrigerating. Leave the flowers in whilst chilling.

4. Just prior to churning, re-whisk and strain the mixture.

5. Churn according to your ice cream machine’s instructions, stopping at a soft serve texture.

6. Put ice cream into a container and freeze for at least four hours, preferably overnight.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1cU6PZkb40tCWkBNr2JXYOnQW4nZ3xqvm

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1v46TCZvn4JbH0hW6n4A2iMGStiduiGWF

Lavender ice cream is amazing! I think it could do with more lavender flavour, but even at this level it’s excellent. I will confess that the colour is food colouring, I really wanted it to be lavender coloured and it didn’t happen, I think this is four drops of purple and one of blue. I’m really excited about trying more floral ice creams, I have a lot of ideas. And because this flavouring was all infusion, I’ve got my simplified Gunters style custard base sorted. Not bad for one week of ice cream!

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