Help!
I know I am jumping ahead~ but I am at home for several days with nothing but time on my hands.

I can't find lavender flowers. I do have lavender leaves... do you think these will work as a substitution to flavor the honey?

At this rate I may be through chocolate before I see the sunshine again.

Happy Scooping

** just edited title - this way we can keep the entire lavender-honey ice cream discussion in one area **

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,

Your question got me outside to check my lavendar plants, which do still have flowers. I notice that the recipe calls for either fresh or dried flowers - you might be able to find dry lavendar flowers, not sure about using leaves. Maybe a local farmer's market?

We went to a local lavender festival in June. There are many kinds of lavender, and I was told that English lavender is the best kind to bake with, and French lavender was best with meats.

We have French lavender plants, which I may try with the ice cream, but I also found a jar of English lavender on the internet which I may go ahead and order.

Buy English Lavender

Nancy

PS - Maybe one of the mods could change the title of this thread to be the official Week 4 thread for the Lavender-Honey Ice Cream to make sure everyone has the benefit of the discussion.

I know I'm not going to be able to find lavender flowers here, so I'm planning on using some lavender honey I can buy locally. I know I could mail order the flowers, but don't want to bother with that. I can buy the lavender honey at an asian grocery store that also has some specialty items.

I've had lavendar flowers in a jar ever since I was in Chicago . . . saw them at the Spice House, bought them, had great plans to use them, never opened the jar. A friend of mine recently bought some in a health food store. Apparently they are quite popular with folks who make their own herbal teas and such. If you have such a 'beast' in your neighbourhood you might want to check there.

World Market has lavender flowers, if you have that store nearby. A small bag, not that expensive. I used them to make a cake last year that ended up tasting a lot like soap.

My aunt has a small lavender farm in CA. She raises two types. One of them is a strain for cosmetic lavendar. The other is a special culinary grade.
I understand there are hundreds of strains. Each having a special application.
She sells her crops to manufacturers even before their planted.
As an interesting note. I don't know if it is a seasonal thing; or if it is about crop rotation; or perhaps(wishful thinking) it is a decline in demand?... But in July in in the Nicconi Valley, I noticed that MANY of the fields I had always seen planted in tobacco were lavender.
The entire hill all the way up to Montemigiano was a purple haze.
At any rate, I'll be able to get mine at Global Foods.

I do have a World Market, but I'm house bound for a few days. I wish I'd thought to go there. My lavender pot didn't make it through July in Alabama.

I might just try it and see~ worse case I'll have to eat it and make it again

I guess I could jump on to Panforte...

You can order from The Spice House a Chicago institution.

I found French lavender in the spice section at World Market (Cost Plus) for 99 cents! Just in time!

Who would have thought I'd buy FRENCH lavender 5 days before leaving for Italy...

I think Bologna has the BEST gelato in Italy, so I hope to take lots of photos and get ideas on new flavor combinations to try!

None to be found anywhere in this area including the health food store! Not a thing at the gourmet store & they looked at me as if I was crazy when I asked.....no lavender tea either.I may have to skip this week..what else can I substitute?? I called our world market and negative there also.

Ida

You could always just make the ice cream and use honey. I made one a month or so ago that was honey and orange-had orange zest and orange liquor, and it was great!

I guess I can change the flavor ..honey goes well with orange but am I not doing my assignment then??

Sometimes I feel like we live in the sticks down here in Fla, I never had a problem finding anything in NJ!

Ida

Ida, do you have a garden shop in your area? Perhaps they have lavender plants. Just a crazy thought.

Ida, if you can't find lavender, how about following the recipe but infusing the honey with sage or rosemary instead. Sounds good to me. Sage honey and rosemary honey are both delicious!

I'm going to post my photo of my lavender-honey ice cream now because I'm leaving town in the morning and will be gone through the weekend. I loved this ice cream. As mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't infuse the honey with lavender, but instead used lavender honey. It has a strong honey flavor, but a subtle lavender flavor. And the honey flavor mellows out after a day or two in the freezer. Very good!

Cindy Ruth - what a wonderful backdrop you chose for your photo! Gorgeous!

Judy

Beautiful picture, Cindy. I had to look twice to see that the green was in the dish and not one of the plants in the background. Have a great weekend!

We're babysitting our grandsons for the entire weekend, so who knows if I'll have enough time to post on Sunday.
I decided to make Lemon Lavender cookies to go with. I iced some of them with a honey lavender frosting.

Wow they look good so far. I made mine tonite
(now chilling it's in the freezer)and it's fantastic. I almost ate 1/3 prior to putting it away. I did do some substitution ..OMG it's soo good.This is definitely not good for dieting!

Deborah.. I love it in your martini glass. What's in the bottom with the lemons?

Cindy ..great photo.

Ida

We just finished eating the Lavender-Honey ice cream, and I loved it! I am not being partial because I picked this week's ice cream - I thought it was very delicate and creamy. Yum!

I ended up using the dried culinary lavender that I ordered online. I was going to try my fresh lavender, but it was the very end of the blooming season, and the intensity of flavor just wasn't there. Next spring when the lavender flowers are first in bloom, I will try again to see how it compares.

Nancy

This is a great ice cream to eat poolside which is what we did. I never found the lavender so I decided to add lemon zest instead. I was going to put rosemary from my garden in it but Bill nixed that idea. Honey and lemon are a fantastic combination. I am asthmatic and very allergic to flowers so perhaps it was better that I used a substitution, otherwise I couldn't even have sampled it.I also just had some for breakfast.

Ida

The chilled mix goes into my ice cream maker this morning, so for once I should be on time with my photo tomorrow! Sounds like this is another winner ... the mix sure tasted good.

I have yet to post a photo. I have no photography skills. Every time I take a picture
the ice cream shows up very bright and undefined, even if I focus on something darker beside or behind the ice cream. I have tried it from every angle with lights on and lights off. Can someone please give me a tip on how you get the close-ups?

Annie what kind of camera are you using? I just basically zoom in, point and shoot but I do have the ice cream glass or dish in a very bright lite area.

Ida

Kathy,

If your camera has a "macro" setting, try that.
It is for close-ups. Sometimes there is a symbol of a little tulip.

So I didn't read the recipe through, and never strained the second addition of lavender. Jerry informed me of this. Well, I was a little distracted!

Off to eat gelato in Italy...

Thanks for the tip, Palma. I didn't know what that tulip was for, and after 2 moves this year, I have no idea where the camera manual is.

Have a fabulous time on your trip. I will be thinking of you and Brad on the 16th. I hope it is your most romantic anniversary yet.

Kathy

Palma, Great glass. How was the ice cream with the lavender left in? I contemplated doing that on purpose, but figured it might feel funny in the mouth.
Enjoy the gelato!

No ice cream for me this week, but I am enjoying all of your creations. They're all beautiful.

Deborah,

It grossed me out, and I kept spitting the flowers out. Felt like bugs! Brad said, "Pretend it's rosemary." Felt like bugs.

quote:

Originally posted by Palma:
Felt like bugs! Brad said, "Pretend it's rosemary." Felt like bugs.

The pictures are all wonderful!
I really liked this ice cream... but the lavender was a mess. I strained it twice and still had a few flowers in my bowl. They weren't to buggy... Bill didn't seem to mind!

Next time I'll take Cindy's shortcut and use lavender honey.

Krista and I made this ice cream together (I was at her house the past couple of days.)

Didn't anyone else get yorkshire pudding on the finish on this one? We loved the creamy texture and it certainly was interesting - I swear, I tasted beef in there.

I liked the lavender-honey flavor combo, but thought it was way too sweet. Then I had the bright idea to float a scoop in a glass of iced tea ...
As you can see - it didn't exactly float! It sank like a stone to the bottom of the glass, leaving behind appetizing (not) cream glops at the top.
Tasted good, though. And it looked better once the ice cream melted a bit and was stirred in...

quote:

Didn't anyone else get yorkshire pudding on the finish on this one? We loved the creamy texture and it certainly was interesting - I swear, I tasted beef in there.

Hmmm - how much wine were you drinking while making your ice cream?

Loved this combination. We used high quality honey and it made a significant difference. Paul said that this was his favourite to date (mind you, he says that every week!)

Shannon, beef!?! Tell me did Krista also taste beef, or was it just you? Hmmmm.

Jerry, love it. FINALLY someone puts their icecream in a cone. The sprig of lavender looks like a feather in a hat.

I am really late to the party this week, in part because I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I really wanted to make this one. So today I did get off the fence and made the mixture this morning. After some chilling time, I will hopefully have something to add.

I have really enjoyed all the pictures, and it has certainly been an interesting week of lavendar discussion. My lavendar, in the garden, is a pinkish hue, so who knows if this will affect the taste.

Until I have ice cream, ciao,

Ok, yes there was some wine involved. But, I have to say that, just like Shannon, I was getting a strange hint of yorkshire pudding/roast beef in this ice cream! The two others at the table said they didn't get it, but they found the lavender flavor too floral for their tastes.

The texture was perfect and I didn't not want to eat it, but after each bite, Shannon and I kept looking at each other and saying things like "what is that taste?" The next day I did taste it again and the lavender flavor was more pronounced and the yorkshire pudding flavor was less noticeable. So maybe the fact that we didn't let the lavender steep in the mixture overnight affected the flavor. Did everyone else let sit overnight before making it?

Another thought that occurred to me was that while making the custard, we let it get too hot and it broke. Luckily David mentions in the front of the book exactly what to do if your custard breaks (immediately blend it with an immersion/stick blender) and his advice was worked perfectly. But, now I'm wondering if the egg yolks developed a different flavor because they got too hot.... giving it that yorkshire pudding and by association beef flavor.

-Krista

Krista-I was wondering if you had used your spatula for a beef dish and the flavor was still there. I have to admit, I laughed hard at this one. No, I had no beef flavor to mine. And while I do like lavender, I don't like the flavor to be too strong, which was probably another plus for using the lavender honey.

quote:

I was wondering if you had used your spatula for a beef dish and the flavor was still there.

I wondered about cross contamination through a container or utensil, as well.

I really, really like this ice cream, but I did not follow the recipes exactly (big surprise ) . I like lavender in food, but only when there is a mere hint of it. So, I steeped about 1 Tbsp of fresh lavender flowers from my garden in the honey for about 45 mins. I substituted the lavender sugar that I bought at the SF Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market last year for the regular sugar, and that was it for the lavender for me. All day I have been thinking about pairing this with a somewhat coarse yellow cake. MMmmmm.

Sharon

quote:

All day I have been thinking about pairing this with a somewhat coarse yellow cake.

We tried it with peach pie last night - delicious!

You're right - it would be quite good with a polenta cake.

Okay - I cheated (and those of you that saw my help thread probably expected that). Just couldn't get my act together on this one, so I made Philadelphia Style Vanilla instead.



I'm thinking though, this lavender honey might be good for Rosh Hashanah, keeping with the theme and all - wonder how it will be with apple cake?

Should there be a prize for the caboose ?

I'm sorry I dawdled because this really does have a lovely flavor. No beef here, but I tasted lavendar first, then honey and David had the reverse reaction. As a matter of fact, it tasted very much like the honey ice cream we used to eat at the Polar Bear parlor in our Santa Cruz days.

Kim, I think if I were to serve this with apple cake for Rosh Hashonah, I would leave out the lavendar. The honey flavor itself with apples would be luscious.

Of course, being late means I have dessert for our labor day barbecue later today.

quote:

As a matter of fact, it tasted very much like the honey ice cream we used to eat at the Polar Bear parlor in our Santa Cruz days.

Polar Bear parlor, huh? Is it still there?

I was in Santa Cruz this weekend visiting my sister and her daughters, and we walked around downtown SC yesterday afternoon. We actually stopped for ice cream, but it wasn't Polar Bear.

Everyone's ice cream looks great. Bill didn't eat it all while I was gone, so we had some for dessert tonight. Yum - I still love it!

Nancy

Good question, Nancy. I don't see an address for them on Soquel where the ice cream parlor was, but there is a listing for an "ice cream production plant" on Coral St, and some references to being able to buy the ice cream in stores in Santa Cruz.

Next time we're up that way, I will have to look. If the store has closed, it's recent becaue I know we have been there with our daughter not too long ago.

The Polar Bear ice cream shop in Capitola Village has changed to Cafe Violette, but still serves delicious ice cream. My dad and I stop in there occasionally if I'm in town on a weekday (weekends are too crowded), and then we'll sit on a waterfront bench and watch the waves.

I'd completely forgotten about Marianne's honey ice cream until I read Marcia's post about Polar Bear. I worked at Marianne's on Ocean Street when I was 16, when they made all the ice cream onsite. (I don't know if they still do that; Sam Lieberman was the owner and ice cream maker... he'd be pretty old by now. ) Although French Vanilla was my very favorite, their honey ice cream was pretty darn good, too. Try it next time you're in Santa Cruz!

We were actually headed to Marianne's for ice cream, but my niece's 13-year-old daughter insisted on going elsewhere.

Wow! Cafe Violette? My Mom's name was Violette, spelled that unusual way.

Thanks for the info, ladies!

Nancy

I have seen Cafe Violette in Capitola Village, and forgot that it was once a Polar Bear. Colleen, do you know what happened to the shop on Soquel Avenue?

Occsionally we will go to Marianne's when we are in Santa Cruz, and the ice cream is still wonderful. Where else can you get Oregon Blackberry in CA?