Lavender Ice Cream

Easy Lavender Ice Cream recipe

I make Lavender Ice Cream using my standard ice cream recipe. It has a wonderful floral creaminess which is perfect eaten in the garden on a sunny English summer day!

Lavender is a strong taste and needs to be used in moderation to avoid echoes of furniture polish!  Don’t be tempted to increase the amount in this recipe.  What you are looking for is a subtle whisper of lavender rather than a full-on bombardment of your taste-buds.    As it is such a strong flavour,  I would serve this Lavender Ice Cream on its own or possibly together with plain vanilla ice cream or maybe Lemon Shortbread biscuits.

You only need the egg yolks for this recipe which means you will have spare egg whites.  As I hate waste, I pretty much always make some form of meringue, when I make ice cream and, very conveniently, my meringue recipe requires four egg whites.  If you feel in the mood for meringue, you could check out my basic Meringue  or Pavlova recipes, or if you want something slightly different, you could try my Rose Meringue recipe.

Edible flower recipes – lavender, rose and elderflower

As is probably obvious from the title of this blog, I love using floral flavourings in my cooking. Lavender-lovers might like the recipes for Lavender Cake and Lavender Shortbread and Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones.

For rose-lovers, there are some great easy baking recipes including Rose and Strawberry Cream Cake and Almond Shortbread with Rosewater. For dessert, you could try Rose and Raspberry Pavlova or Rose Meringues. I also have a fantastic easy recipe for delicious floral Rose Petal Jam and an easy-peasy recipe for Crystallised Rose Petals.

For elderflower-lovers, there are recipes for Elderflower Ice CreamGooseberry and Elderflower Sorbet and Elderflower and Lemon Cupcakes. I also have a recipe for a classic Elderflower Cordial and also really easy recipes for Elderflower Gin and a lovely floral-flavoured Elderflower Vinegar.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

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Easy recipe for Lavender Ice Cream

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Lavender Ice Cream

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.6 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Ice-cream
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Rich and creamy, this Lavender Ice Cream is a great way of using the wonderful, floral taste of lavender.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 85 g caster sugar
  • 425 ml double cream
  • 3 fresh lavender flowers broken down into petals (or 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh lavender leaves)
Lavender Ice-cream, lavender ice cream recipe, lavender ice cream
Cream and lavender

Instructions

  1. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until the mixture looks paler and resembles a mousse.
  2. Put the cream and lavender flowers or leaves in a saucepan and heat gently. Do not allow to boil – it will be the right temperature when you are just about able to bear to dip a finger in it!
  3. Remove the saucepan containing the cream and lavender from the heat.  At this stage you can strain the cream to remove all the lavender.  I generally don’t strain the lavender out as I like the little blue petals distributed through the ice cream but I know some people prefer a totally smoothe ice cream with just the flavour and no petals!
  4. Pour the infused cream into the bowl containing the egg yolks and sugar, whisking all the time.
  5. Transfer the combined mixture into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or, ideally a double-boiler, as you need to reheat it very gently.
  6. The mixture will gradually thicken until it looks like a custard (which is what it is).  Stir regularly to make sure it does not stick while it is thickening.
  7. Remove the thick custard from the heat and transfer into a bowl.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then transfer to the fridge to become thoroughly chilled.
  8. When you are ready to make the ice-cream, transfer to your ice-cream maker and use according to your machine’s instructions.  If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.

Notes

Make sure that you only use fresh lavender that you are sure has not been sprayed with chemicals.  The best place to source it is from your garden – it is very easy to grow!

If you do not have access to fresh lavender, you can use 2 teaspoons of dried culinary lavender.  The flavour is strengthened by the drying process, so the amount is less than that for fresh lavender.

10 thoughts on “Lavender Ice Cream”

  1. I used 3 lavender heads both times. There were more flowers the 2nd time but flavour still very subtle. Does it depend on the lavender variety? I will try 4 next time. There will be a next time as it’s a delicious creamy ice cream. Super texture

    1. Thank you – it is a properly creamy ice-cream! Yes, the strength of flavour depends on the variety of lavender and also the maturity of the flowers (whether they are buds or fully bloomed). The stronger the scent of the flowers, the stronger the taste and, as you suggest, you can vary the amount of lavender according to the strength of flavour you are after.

  2. Yeah it was nice, I begrudgingly followed your advice and it was not to my taste at all, I was not after a whisper but a bang, so I tripled the amount the second time, much closer to what I was after. Thanks for sharing this recipe.






    1. Hi Arlo – Thanks for your feedback. The great thing about making your own ice cream is that you can make it to your own taste – whether it is a mild hint of lavender or a full-on bang of flavour. It is also worth noting that if you use fresh herbs, the flavour can vary according to the variety so maybe my lavender plants have a particularly strong flavour!

  3. I was skeptical about this when I was making it, as the lavender flavour didn’t seem to infuse well into the cream as I was heating it, however the 4 fresh sprigs I used gave enough flavour that it was definitely lavender, without being overpowering. Really pleased with the result – it is insanely rich and creamy. I thought that the quantity created my husband and I would have eaten in one go (!) however because it is so rich, you don’t need a lot to feel that you have had enough. I discovered lavender ice cream when we visited Cromer on the North Norfolk coast a few years ago, absolutely loved it, and am so pleased I can now make our own at home that is equally as good.






  4. The ice cream was lovely. It made a very small batch- only filled my small ice cream maker about halfway. I thought perhaps I left out some whole milk. Does your custard recipe only contain cream? I looked back and it only called for cream. I didn’t accidentally leave it out. It is very delicious and subtly lavender spiked. Looking forward to your other ice cream recipes. Just wanted to clarify first.
    Thank you!






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