Late summer is when the bees seem at their busiest at the Old Sheep Farm. I had just got given some beautiful fresh local honey, made just down the road at Welsh Cottage in Llechwedd, and it just coincided with lavender pruning time - only one thing for it!
It was a simple recipe, and very delicious. The lavender and honey somehow merged into a single delightful flavour, an intensely floral sweetness that was summer in a bowl.
The recipe came from a wonderful ice cream recipe book called 'Lola's Ice Creams and Sundaes' by Morfudd Richards (known as Wales' 'Ice Cream Queen').
Ingredients:
500ml whole milk (I used the creamiest Jersey cow milk I could find!)
250ml whipping cream
2 fresh lavender sprigs
6 egg yolks
170g honey
Method:
It is a super simple recipe, but you do need a thermometer and an ice cream machine of some description!
1. Heat the milk, cream and lavender in a pan until it is just steaming but not quite boiling yet. Take it off the heat and let those fragrant sprigs infuse your milk with summertime cottage garden flavours for 15 minutes.
2. Sieve out the lavender and return to the pan.
3. Whisk the egg yolks, slowly pour the warm infused milk into the yolks whilst mixing, then return to the pan and back on the hob.
4. Here comes the crucial bit - now heat the mixture, stirring continuously, until you reach 80 degrees C and hold it there for 15 seconds.
5. Once you have done that, its easy again; take it off the heat, add the honey and cool it as quickly as you can. Sitting the pan in a sink of iced water does the trick, with a bit of a whisk to help it along.
6. Now stick it in the fridge overnight and look forward to your treat tomorrow!
7. Once you are ready to churn, put it in your ice cream maker, and voila! Enjoy.
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