Ice Cream Flavor of the Week

I love making ice cream. I truly had no idea how much I loved it until Daniel's parents bought him us an ice cream maker. I've been mixing up different flavors almost weekly. Last week, while said parents were in town, I tried Nutter Butter Peanut Butter with crunched up pieces of the cookies mixed in and on top. It was gone within 24 hours. My go-to flavors are: cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, thin mint, coconut, raspberry chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip. Yum- I'm loving it.

So today a friend asked if I'd make him some ice cream using an herb that's incredibly in season and fresh right now... basil. Of course I said yes! In fact, I said, "Basil with mint, vanilla, or lemon?" To which he responded, "you decide". And so I went with vanilla. Knowing that basil could overpower the ice cream I eased into this batch but after tasting realized that as odd as it sounds, this ice cream is delicious!


Here's what you'll need:

• An ice cream maker. Don't have one? That's odd. Go get one! This past Spring I saw one at Unique Thrift store for $6. I tried talking my man into getting it because it would be great to have two (don't have to wait for the one canister to refreeze!) or it would be great to give away. I have since been back to said thrift store and it's gone. However, keep your eyes peeled though! Maybe in the Fall/Winter/or Spring!
• 2 cups of 1/2 and 1/2 (some people make their ice cream with milk. Boo. If you're going to have ice cream why use something with less fat?)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 7/8 cup of sugar (you could probably use a whole cup but these are the rules I was handed down!)
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (don't skimp on this!)
• a handful of fresh basil finely chopped

Here's how I make my ice cream.
Pour the 1/2 and 1/2 into your blender.
Add the sugar, flavoring (vanilla in this case) and basil.
Mix it up.
Then, using a small bowl or, in my case, a leftover 32 oz yogurt container, pour your whipping cream in and beat with an electric hand mixer. This aerates the cream before you mix it in with the rest. Beat it just until it starts to thicken and look almost like whip cream.
Add the cream to the blender and mix all of the ingredients together.
Here's where this recipe diverts from the others I use. Usually I'd just pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen canister and start stirring but- I didn't want to have tiny pieces of basil in my dessert. So I strained the mixture first through my strainer with a piece of cheese cloth on top. Voila! Clean ice cream that tastes amazing.

My ice cream maker is a hand crank one but it only takes 30 minutes to get to the right consistency. I then scoop the ice cream into a freezer safe container and let it harden for a couple of hours. Of course, you can eat it right away, and of course, I do. But I try to save some for later!