The Recipe Redux theme for August is frozen desserts. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to check out more delicious dessert recipes, but stick around long enough to drool over peach lavender ice cream. (Shhh, the fat, saturated fat and cholesterol are lower than a traditional custard ice cream, but don't tell anyone!) And if you don't have access to fresh lavender, this recipe will work well as straight peach ice cream, sans lavender. This summer I have been working on a client project that has allowed me to team up again with Souders Studios, headed up by food and beverage photographer extraordinaire Rick Souders who partners with fabulous food stylist chef Stephen Shern. And I recently received some excellent advice from Stephen about using lavender in culinary applications. First, if you haven't used lavender in cooking, you might want to start with a savory meat dish first, rather than a sweet dessert. But don't let me deter you from trying this ice cream recipe, because it's quite delicious. Second, with lavender, it's all about the amount used.
Lavender buds tend to be less bitter than leaves and stems, and in a sweet recipe featuring the relatively mild taste of peaches, you want to be careful to keep the lavender from overwhelming the flavor profile, so just buds are called for. Eight to 10 lavender sprigs, such as these from my front yard, yield enough lavender buds for this recipe.
I use kitchen shears to trim the buds from the stems.
I simply adore Colorado peaches, but truly I think the key to good tasting juicy peaches is getting them locally in season, wherever you live. When August rolls around, we buy a case weekly from the Boulder County Farmers' Markets. Maybe we get a a dessert or two out of the box, but mostly we're just gobbling peaches, juice dripping down our chins.
To make ice cream with eggs (cooked, of course), you'll want to plan ahead and prepare the ice cream mix the day before, to allow time for the cooked mix to cool thoroughly. I have an old Donvier ice cream maker, and I place the inner "chillfast" aluminum cylinder in the freezer when I start to make the mix. Churning the ice cream is a fun family activity reserved for the next day.
Heat cream and lavender in medium sauce pan to 175°F. Let lavender steep in hot cream for about 20 minutes. Use a strainer and cheese cloth to strain lavender from cream. Discard lavender.
While lavender is steeping in the cream, beat eggs, milk and honey in another sauce pan, cook over low heat, stiring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 15-20 minutes. Let cool and add lavender-infused cream and vanilla. Refrigerate overnight.
I use kitchen shears to trim the buds from the stems.
I simply adore Colorado peaches, but truly I think the key to good tasting juicy peaches is getting them locally in season, wherever you live. When August rolls around, we buy a case weekly from the Boulder County Farmers' Markets. Maybe we get a a dessert or two out of the box, but mostly we're just gobbling peaches, juice dripping down our chins.
To make ice cream with eggs (cooked, of course), you'll want to plan ahead and prepare the ice cream mix the day before, to allow time for the cooked mix to cool thoroughly. I have an old Donvier ice cream maker, and I place the inner "chillfast" aluminum cylinder in the freezer when I start to make the mix. Churning the ice cream is a fun family activity reserved for the next day.
Yield: 8 1/2 cup servings.
Preparation Time: About 1 hour for mix, chill overnight, about 30 minutes for churning.
1 1/2 cups cream
3 Tbsp fresh lavender buds
2 eggs
Whites from 2 eggs
2 1/2 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 peaches
1 tsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp fresh lavender buds
2 eggs
Whites from 2 eggs
2 1/2 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 peaches
1 tsp lemon juice
Heat cream and lavender in medium sauce pan to 175°F. Let lavender steep in hot cream for about 20 minutes. Use a strainer and cheese cloth to strain lavender from cream. Discard lavender.
While lavender is steeping in the cream, beat eggs, milk and honey in another sauce pan, cook over low heat, stiring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 15-20 minutes. Let cool and add lavender-infused cream and vanilla. Refrigerate overnight.
About an hour before churning the ice cream, you'll want to blanch the peaches to remove the skin and then chop them. To blanch peaches, bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a sauce pan. Turn off heat. Add peaches and let sit about 2-3 minutes, until skin starts to peel. Drain off water and refill sauce pan with cool water. When peaches are cool, pull off skin and chop the flesh. Sprinkle with lemon juice and place in refrigerator.
Just before churning, fold the chopped peaches into the ice cream mix. Follow directions with your ice cream maker to churn the ice cream. I usually harden churned ice cream in the freezer a couple hours prior to serving.
What makes this recipe lower in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than its traditional counterpart is replacing one egg with two egg whites, reducing the cream by 25% from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups and increasing the milk to 2 1/2 cups to make up for the reduction in cream. However, this recipe is not a fat-free ride by any means, and I wouldn't want to make it such. Fat plays an important roll in minimizing crystallization in ice cream, so reducing the cream by too much will make for an inferior texture and flavor. Just keep in mind that a serving of ice cream is 1/2 cup...and if that's all the ice cream you're going to eat, occasionally, you might as well enjoy it! A serving of this ice cream is a good source of calcium (going by the FDA's definitions), and the addition of fresh peaches make it excellent source of vitamin A.
Per Serving Nutritional Profile:
Calories, 300
Fat, 20 g
Saturated Fat, 12 g
Cholesterol, 115 mg
Carbs, 28 g
Dietary Fiber, 1g
Protein, 6 g
Sodium, 85 mg
Vitamin A, 20% Daily Value
Vitamin C, 8% Daily Value
Calcium, 15% Daily Value
Iron, 2% Daily Value
Per Serving Nutritional Profile:
Calories, 300
Fat, 20 g
Saturated Fat, 12 g
Cholesterol, 115 mg
Carbs, 28 g
Dietary Fiber, 1g
Protein, 6 g
Sodium, 85 mg
Vitamin A, 20% Daily Value
Vitamin C, 8% Daily Value
Calcium, 15% Daily Value
Iron, 2% Daily Value
Check out other frozen desserts made by Recipe Redux bloggers:
