Honey Ice Cream

Ice cream is such a treat, and with the weather warming up, it is something we think about for dessert a little more often these days. Who am I kidding? No matter how much I can't stand cold weather, I don't think it is ever NOT ice cream time...

The only problem with ice cream is that, unless you have special equipment, it is not something that you can just whip up at home whenever you feel like it.

Or so I thought.

Then I happened across this recipe. Ice cream without the machine? Intriguing. Honey flavored? Interesting. Only two ingredients? No reason not to try it!

The first step was to warm half a cup of honey in a saucepan. The fact that the picture of the honey in the measuring cup came out so cool was just a bonus. Anyway, the honey is warmed over low heat until it is nice and runny, not so thick and sticky anymore.

Once the honey is ready, the directions say to mix in half of the two and a half cups of heavy cream called for in the recipe (so, one and a quarter cups). It says to mix the cream into the honey until it is smooth and well incorporated. I started out mixing with the spatula you see in the picture, but switched to a whisk after a couple of minutes to better combine the ingredients.

The next step was to whip the other half of the heavy cream (yes, the other one and a quarter cups) until soft peaks form. I started whipping in the KitchenAid and kept a close eye on it... until the phone rang. In only the time it took to turn around, walk to the phone, pick it up and walk back, my cream went from just-about-soft-peaks to slightly-stiff-peaks, so I quickly turned off the mixer. Hey, at least I didn't make butter, right??

The whipped cream was slowly folded into the honey-cream mixture, and stirred until it was completely incorporated and had a nice, smooth consistency. The resulting cream was then poured into a freezer safe container (another trusty take out soup container!) and placed into the freezer for the entire afternoon. That was it. No churning, no special equipment - ice cream recipe complete.

So how did it turn out? It scooped really nicely, and had a very smooth, creamy consistency. I think that half a cup of honey, which doesn't sound like that much, might be a little overpowering for the delicate cream, as the dessert had a very strong honey taste. The texture was not like that of ice cream, but not in a way I can really describe... It tasted creamy, but didn't have the same smooth creamy feel in my mouth as regular ice cream. Little miss thought it was okay, but didn't love it like she does ice cream. My husband thought it was good, but not great. As for me? I will definitely try it again, either with less honey, or possibly try to figure out how to make a different flavor. It doesn't replace ice cream, but is a fun, creamy, frozen dessert.

Honey Ice Cream

(from Russian Season)

1/2 cup honey

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

Heat honey over low heat until runny. Add half of the cream and stir until smooth.

Whip the remaining cream until soft peaks form and add to the honey/cream mixture. Stir well.

Place the cream mixture in a freezer-safe container and freeze for six to eight hours.

Enjoy!