Blueberry lemon thyme swirl ice cream
A perfect zingy summer treat with creamy vanilla paired with the freshness and the zesty lemony taste of the thyme in this blueberry lemon thyme ice cream.
Calories:
Equipment & Tools
- ice-cream maker (optional)
INGREDIENTS
Vanilla ice cream - the base
- 500 g heavy cream (> 30% fat)
- 250 g whole milk
- 135 g unrefined sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- ¼ tsp salt (Himalayan)
- 6 egg yolks (free range)
- 1 tsp cornstarch (optional)
Blueberry swirl
- 150 g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- 50 g acacia honey
- ½ lemon (juice)
- ¼ tsp unrefined sugar (optional, see instructions)
- 1 tsp lemon thyme (leaves only)
INSTRUCTIONS
Vanilla ice cream
- Measure out heavy cream, milk, and sugar in a pot.
- Cut the vanilla bean in half and with a dull part of the knife scrape all the seeds out and add to the above mixture.
- In a separate bowl add egg yolks and cornstarch and whisk the mixture until nice smooth and no clumps are visible.
- Heat up the milk and cream mixture on medium heat with constant whisking until it starts to boil. Don’t let it boil vigorously. Take it off the heat.
- With continuous mixing add a ladle or two of hot milk/cream mixture to the egg yolk mixture and whisk to slowly heat up the eggs so that they do not overcook immediately.
- Slowly and with continuous whisking add the egg mixture to the milk/cream mixture. Put back on the stove on low heat and stir for a minute until the mixture and creamy and sticks to the spatula. If you run the finger over the spatula the custard shouldn’t drip over the scraped line. You don’t want the mixture to boil, but just to have enough heat to cook the eggs.
- Transfer the custard to the clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put the mixture on the ice bath.
- Once it is cooled enough not to burn the finger, place the bowl in the fridge, preferably overnight to cool completely.
- Once the custard is completely cooled, take the plastic wrap off and churn it according to appliance instructions.
Blueberry swirl
- (optional) For a more pronounced lemon thyme flavor, mash the lemon thyme leaves and sugar in the mortar and pestle, until you get a paste-like texture.
- Measure and add all the ingredients in the food processor and mix until it is 90% mixed. It is better to pulse not to over mix everything as very vigorous processing dilutes the color a bit.
- Transfer the mixture to a container/bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
Assembling the ice cream
- Add a dollop of vanilla ice cream along with the tablespoon of the blueberry mixture.
- Once you used up all the vanilla ice cream and the blueberry mixture take a dull knife or a chopstick, stick it in one corner of the container and start zig-zagging to make a swirl effect all throughout your ice cream.
- Place the ice cream back in the freezer to set.
NOTES
- If you are using frozen blueberries, let them thaw on the counter because the honey will stick to them and solidify which will make it much harder to process all the ingredients uniformly.
- There is no need to churn the blueberry mixture.
- If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can still make the ice cream (although it will probably have some ice crystals). Put the custard in an ice cream container (a classic plastic Tupperware is ok), place in the freezer and stir it every 15 minutes until it is set. Stirring more often will reduce the number of potential ice crystals.
- If you want a stronger blueberry color add some wild blueberries.
* Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.