The summers of my youth could be described in three flavors. Grape juice, cheddar cheese and homemade honey vanilla ice cream. Being from a long line of beekeepers meant that my family had learned to incorporate the very nectar of their labors into almost every food they ate.
I have mentioned that as a young child, a spoonful of honey was a snack. A few drops of pollen, a special treat.
But nothing compared to my grandma’s honey ice cream. And nothing ever will.
I have tried to replicate it the best I could. I also wanted to make it a bit less rich. I believe my grandmother used mostly cream. I decided to use half milk. Half cream.
If you have never had honey ice cream, well, I don’t know if you should try it now. You will never go back. It is that good.
Seriously knees-dropping-to-the-ground-as-you-pay-homage-to-a-passing-bee good.
The person who invented the saying “you’re the bee’s knees,” may or may not have been referring to this phenomenon after just having eaten honey ice cream.
I mean, that makes sense right?
Well, it makes more sense than comparing someone to bee’s knees. Which, while they are quite cute and fuzzy for knees, do not come close to comparing to this treat.
Let’s make some heaven!
Ingredients:
2/3 cup honey
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Caviar from one vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
Directions:
Pour your milk and cream into a large pot on the stove. Add your honey. Turn heat to medium-low.
While that is heating up, separate five egg yolks. Whisk the egg yolks for two minutes continuously. Or bust out your stand mixer if you have one. And let it do the work for you on medium speed for two minutes.
Add the caviar of a vanilla bean to the steeping milk mixture. Whisk. When milk mixture comes to a light boil, turn heat to low. Very slowly add a ladleful (about 1/2 a cup) to the egg yolks while you whisk them. Now add that mixture back into the hot milk mixture. With a wooden spoon, stir continuously until the mixture begins to thicken. This should be about three minutes.
Turn heat off. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Add vanilla extract. Stir.
Cover bowl and refrigerate at least two hours to overnight.
Follow your ice cream maker’s churning instructions. For my machine, I simply dump in the chilled ingredients.
Freeze your ice cream in a freezer-safe container. And then indulge the next day. I like mine covered in Trader Joe’s Fudge Sauce.
I warn you. You will never look at vanilla ice cream the same way again.
Or a bee for that matter.
Now let’s get some padding for those knees.
*I adapted the vanilla ice cream recipe that came with my Cuisinart Ice-100
him one of those babies. I might love it more than David Beckham.
Yum! I am going to try this next weekend!
Thank you! Please let me know if you like it! I just served some with peach cake tonight! : )
Have a great weekend!
Jenni
OH MY GOODNESS. This looks so good. I love the description of your grandmother’s honey ice cream and that you associate it with your childhood. Isn’t it incredible how food can play such a huge role in our lives. I’ve never thought of making ice cream from scratch. I don’t know why, it just seems “hard”, but you make it took so easy with this recipe. We have some yummy honey bought from some local farmers, maybe I could try this.
Thank you so much for the story and recipe!
Thank you! Local honey is the best. It helps protect against allergies in your area. It really is easy. I usually make a double batch and make half vanilla and half another flavor. This time I did cinnamon, too.
Oh! I am so behind! I am so sorry about my late email! I will work on it this weekend.
Have a lovely weekend!
Jenni
Yummy! I am forwarding this to my Dad in Oregon.
Thanks Brynne! : ). I hope he likes it. I am sending it to my dad, too. He lost his recipe.
We love honey ice cream here. My next favorite is chocolate and then mint chip. My husband’s is cinnamon. Hopefully I will get to those soon.
Have a happy weekend! I have been thinking about you.
Jenni
Yum! I’ve been eyeing an ice cream maker this year..this might push me over the edge! Thanks for sharing, Jenni 🙂
Thank you Kara. I love this ice cream maker. I will say I have watched the price for two years. It fluctuates. I am going to be watching the price again because I want to give one to a relative as a Christmas present this year.
Have a super weekend!
Jenni
Yum!! My husband and I have been talking about getting an ice cream maker, but I’m worried it’ll be one of those appliances that sit in the pantry and rarely get used (like the espresso maker…)
Thank you Sarah. It kind of is like that. I have had it since December. I used it twice in February. Once in March. And now, three times in June. My Kitchenaid Mixer gets used almost every day in comparison (I used to wonder if I would ever use one). I love the ice cream maker and I am thrilled I have it, but it is not an everyday machine. Definitely a warm weather thing!
Have a great weekend!
Jenni
That looks sooooooo good! And you made it from scratch?!!
Have you ever had avocado ice cream? I really want to try that but have not found it. I heard it is amazing. But I wonder.
Thank you Cynthia. I have never had avocado ice cream. Actually I had never even heard of it before. We live near avocados so no problem finding them. Maybe I will try making it. I am kind of scared. But in a good way!
Have a cheerful weekend!
Jenni
Wow. You actually make your own icecream?! That’s really great, you can avoid all the horrible additives that are in most store-bought icecreams. You really are Supermom!
I do! It is so easy. I don’t know about supermom. I have had a bad mommy week. But I am good at ice cream! : ).
Have a lovely evening!
Jenni
Looks amazing. I love homemade ice cream. I started making one a few years ago that uses whipping cream, orange zest and grand marnier among a few other things. You don’t need an ice cream maker… just whip everything in the blender and then pour it into a pan to freeze. I will definitely have to try your recipe. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you! : )
Wow! That sounds fantastic. I love grand marnier. I use it in my creme brûlée.
Have a lovely week!
Jenni
I’m just back from my vacation and I definitely have to cut out treats like ice cream, so this isn’t helping. 🙂 I love vanilla ice cream, this looks delicious!
I hope you had fun! And got a lot of reading in! Thank you! I am making a different flavor today, which I best get up and start. : )
Have a great day!
Jenni
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