Ice Cream Making, Again

With a house full of guests this weekend, Will and I are in BnB mode (bed and breakfast). Or, at least I am-- Will is currently out of town. He returns on Thursday and will put the final touches on the guest rooms.

These two coincidences, impending arrival of house guests and Will being out of town, means that I can do something normally not allowed: making an unusual ice cream. It being autumn, and our garden on its way to sleeping through the winter, there isn't much in the way of fresh produce... except for our herbs. Basil, specifically.

This lovely herb usually added to Italian dishes and delicious with buffalo mozzarella became my primary ingredient.

I used the recipe from David Lebowitz's Perfect Scoop-- only I sorta messed it up by adding more cream than called for and not mixing it in the proper order. These things happen when I am trying to also talk on the phone, make my dinner, clean the house, and corral the animals. Anyway...

Still, I got a beautiful soft green ice cream with small flecks of basil:


On its own, it is quite strong and you are definitely not expecting ice cream to taste like an herb. However, I made a lemon simple syrup and added strawberries, letting the berries soak up some of the syrup. I put the strawberries in the bottom of a bowl, added the lemon syrup, and then put one scoop of basil ice cream in the middle.

It was amazing! Very refreshing and the combination of the lemon with berries downplayed the intensity of the basil. Will, having tasted the basil ice cream on its own and not particularly enjoying the taste, came round to the odd flavor with this concoction.