Healthy Icecream?
Honey Chamomile Gelato
Using various herbs, spices, brews, and flavorings in Gelato is an art. We ran across this recipe for Honey Chamomile Gelato in The Daily Meal, one of the premier publications for restaurants and chefs. This recipe is an example of how you can use honey with herbs to flavor a dessert
The Scoop on Chamomile
When I think of chamomile, I think of my mother-in-law giving me a cup of this herbal tea for jet lag. It’s very soothing, and many people will drink a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed to promote relaxation. To me, chamomile is very yin energetically, meaning the herb encourages me to be in a quiet, receptive state. What I didn’t know is that chamomile has other health benefits. Click here to see a post on chamomile’s health benefits from The Natural Society.
The Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups organic whole milk
- 4 chamomile tea bags
- 4 organic egg yolks
- 1/2 cup Bee Wild honey, plus more for drizzling
- 1 cup organic heavy cream
Instructions
- In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the milk and tea bags to a simmer over medium heat, stirring every so often so the bottom doesn't burn.
- Meanwhile, in a medium-sized bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and honey until the mixture is well blended and thick.
- Slowly pour a ladle full of the hot milk onto the yolks. (This will temper the eggs so they don’t curdle.) Add the warmed egg-milk mixture to the saucepan and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat. At this point, you can either chill the custard in the refrigerator until cold or, more quickly, cool it over an ice bath.
- When the custard is chilled, remove the tea bags and stir in the cream. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Once fully churned, drizzle a few zig-zags of honey in the bottom of the container you're using to freeze the gelato. Add a couple scoops of gelato. Drizzle on more honey. Continue this layering process — and don’t mix the layers! — until the container is full. Repeat with another container, if necessary.
